The South Korean tech giant took a 44.9 share, down 7.9 percentage points from the same period of last year, according to the market researcher, IDC.
China's Huawei, gaining ground, outpaced Apple Inc. with a share of 9.5 percent, up from 2.6 percent a year earlier.
Apple moved down one notch to third place with a share of 7.8 percent, compared with 9.5 percent a year earlier.
Nokia also suffered a setback, seeing its share fall to 6.6 percent from 7.2 percent.
Sales of mobile phones, including smartphones, in the Middle East and Africa soared 27 percent to 64 million units over the cited period, the report said.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
