Samsung and Apple dominate smartphone market leaving rivals in the dust

Apple and Samsung together accounted for more than half of the worldwide market for smartphones at the end of last year, with iPhones and the South Korean maker's Galaxy devices leaving rivals far behind.

The two companies had 52 per cent of the worldwide smartphone market share in the final three months of 2012, according to figures from the research firm Gartner. "There is no manufacturer that can firmly lay claim to the number three spot in global smartphone sales," Anshul Gupta, an analyst at Gartner, said.

Samsung ended the year in the number one spot, with its overall smartphone sales rising to 64.5 million units in the quarter. Apple's sales, meanwhile, stood at 43.5 million.

Gartner forecast that smartphone sales in 2013 would rise to one billion units, with total mobile phone sales rising to 1.9 billion, reversing the slight decline seen last year.