Samsung becomes the world's largest smartphone maker as Apple's market share hits a three-year low

Samsung has reported record profits as it extends its lead over Apple.

In the second quarter of this year - from April to June - Samsung sold more than double the amount of handsets compared to Apple and took in £4.5bn.

This represents a 44 per cent increase compared to the same time last year and gives Samsung its biggest ever lead over Apple since the first iPhone was released in 2007.

Apple's market share has also hit a three-year low.

According to figures from research firm Strategy Analytics (SA), Samsung accounts for almost 95 per cent of the total sales of Android smartphones and this has been boosted by the 'solid demand' for its Galaxy S4 handset.

SA claims that Samsung shipped 2.4 times more phones around the world than Apple in the second quarter of 2013.

During the same period last year, Samsung sold 1.9 times more handsets than its Californian-based rival and the latest figures demonstrate Samsung is continuing to extend a lead over Apple.

Figures from industry intelligence firm IDC claim Samsung shipped a total of 72.4 million smartphones from April to June.

Comparatively, Apple shipped 31.2 million.

This gives Samsung a market share of 30.4 per cent.

While Apple now has a 13.1 per cent share - a three-year low and slips from 16.6 per cent last year.

Both companies storm ahead of other phone makers, including LG, Lenovo and ZTE which had 5.1 per cent share, 4.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively.

This is the first time ever that ZTE has taken the fourth spot.

Lenovo pushed Huawei from the list.

However, some analysts claim this might be because Apple is gearing up for a new release so is experiencing a natural decline. 

Apple released its most recent handset, the iPhone 5, in September 2012 whereas Samsung released its flagship Galaxy S4 in March this year.

Since that time, the Korean firm has also released the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini in May - both which would have contributed to this rise.

Apple is rumoured to be working on an iPhone 5S, due to launch in September, as well as a cheaper, plastic model dubbed iPhone Lite.

Figures from uSwitch.com's Mobile Tracker for July found that Apple handsets are still among the bestselling smartphones in the UK.

Apple's iPhone 5 topped the list, followed by the 4S model.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 is the bestselling Android device while Apple's iPhone 4 is in fourth place and Samsung's other Galaxy handsets occupy fifth, eight, ninth and tenth place.

The HTC One Silver and Sony's Xperia Z complete the top ten in sixth and seventh respectively.

Other figures from Strategy Analystics found that global smartphone shipments grew 47 per cent annually from 156.5 million units in the second quarter of 2012 to 229.6 million in Q2 2013.

This was the largest volume of smartphones ever shipped in a single quarter.

Smartphones accounted for 59 per cent of all mobile phones shipped globally and the growth is being driven by surging demand for 4G models in developed regions like the U.S and 3G models in emerging markets such as India.