• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, August 14, 2012

Citing an unstable world economy, Gartner this week said it is likely to cut 2012 mobile growth projections.

“As a volatile economic climate firmly grips both manufacturers and consumers of technology … the research firm believes that many will hold back from upgrading their mobile devices,” ZDNet reports.

The research firm said worldwide sales of mobile phones declined 2.3% in the second quarter -- reaching a total of 419 million units. Out of this value, smartphone sales accounted for 36.7% of total sales.

Put another way, “Huge growth from Apple and Samsung in the second quarter wasn’t enough to offset the declines seen across most of the rest of the industry,” BGR reports.

Between the two powerhouses, Android continues to take an ever larger share of the mobile market.

“Android, led by Samsung, is reaping the most benefits from [sector] growth at the moment,” TechCrunch points out.

With nearly 99 million units sold, Android devices captured 64% of the smartphone market for the quarter -- compared to 43.4% a year ago -- while Samsung’s Galaxy line of devices accounted for more than half of all Android sales, reaching 45.6 million devices sold.

“There is no doubt that Samsung is currently the most successful phone vendor,” PCWorld writes. “Samsung's overall sales were up 29.5 percent year-on-year to 90.4 million units.”

Meanwhile, as The Wall Street Journal notes: “Gartner said Nokia's Windows-running Lumia devices ‘continue to struggle to find a place in consumers' minds as a replacement for [Google’s] Android.’”