Worldwide cellphone sales fell 2.9% as users wait for iPhone 5, says Gartner

Consumer anticipation for the iPhone 5 is so high that it helped slow global sales of mobile phones in the second quarter, according to the latest research from Gartner.

Worldwide cellphone sales were 419 million for the quarter, down 2.3 percent from the same time last year, Gartner reports. In addition to the impending launch of the next iPhone, Gartner research analyst Anshul Gupta also points to major releases come from Chinese manufacturers later this year, as well as the slowing demand for feature phones, as reasons for the global sales drop.

Samsung led phone sales during Q2 account for 21.6 percent of the market  (up from 16.3 percent last year), followed by Nokia’s 19.9 percent share (down from 22.8 percent), and Apple’s 6.9 percent share (up from 4.6 percent). The rise of Samsung and Apple and the fall of Nokia are clear indicators that smartphones are now key for dominating the cellular landscape.

Android achieved an even greater lead over iOS when it comes to overall market share, reaching 64.1 percent in the quarter, up from 43.3 percent last year. Apple remained steady at 18.1 percent of the market, slightly down from last year’s 18.2 percent. It seems like most of Android’s share came at the expense of Symbian, which fell from 22.1 percent last year to a mere 5.9 percent this past quarter.

Rounding out the bottom, RIM held 5.2 percent of the market, down from 11.7 percent. I don’t suspect that will change much this year, since the company isn’t releasing its next-generation BlackBerry 10 software and phones until 2013.

Samsung’s low-end Bada platform and Windows Phone continue to duke it out at the bottom as well. Both platforms held 2.7 percent of the market, according to Gartner, up from Samsung’s 1.9 percent last year and Windows Phone’s 1.6 percent. Windows Phone is growing slightly faster, but Samsung’s lower priced Bada phones will continue to make it competitive.

iPhone 5 mockup via iLabFactory