The worldwide mobile phone market declined 1.5 percent year over year in the first quarter to 398.4 million units, according to IDC. The decline in sales of traditional feature phones offset the 42.5 percent increase in smartphone shipments, to 144.9 million. IDC estimates that Samsung was the biggest handset maker in the quarter and the largest smartphone seller. Samsung sold an estimated 42.2 million smartphones in the quarter, nearly four times the 11.5 million in the year-earlier period. This beat the 35.1 million phones shipped at number-two Apple. Nokia was in third place with shipments of 11.9 million, down 51 percent from a year earlier, followed by Research In Motion with 9.7 million and HTC at an estimated 6.9 million.
