Samsung Electronics shipped 85 million smartphones in the first quarter, 22% higher than the 69.7 million total year-on-year. The South Korean electronics giant remains the dominant smartphone maker worldwide by a huge margin.

Samsung shipped more smartphones than the combined output of Apple, Inc. (43.7 million); Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (13.7 million); Lenovo Group Ltd. (12.9 million) and LG Corporation (12.3 million).

The combined shipment from other manufacturers that include HTC, Motorola, Oppo, Sony and Nokia amounted to 113.9 shipments. Others accounted for 47.9 percent of total shipments, or close to 215 million units.

The overall smartphone market grew 28% during the quarter, said American market research firm, IDC. In the first three months of the year, global smartphone shipments totaled 281.5 million, up from 218.8 million on-year.

IDC estimates the entire phone market (including both smartphones and dumbphones) shipped 448.6 million phones in Q1, almost the same number of phones shipped in the same quarter last year.  

While Samsung's volume of shipments increased significantly year-on-year, its market share dipped slightly from 31.9 percent to 30.2 percent.

Apple shipped almost 17 percent more smartphones as against last year's comparable total of 43.7 million units. Its market share, however, slipped to 15.5 percent from 17.1 percent on-year. Apple shipped about half as many smartphones as Samsung so far this year.

Most of the ongoing worldwide growth comes from conversions from dumbphones to smartphones. Smartphones accounted for 63 percent of all phone shipments in Q1 compared to about 51 percent of all phones a year ago. Analysts noted that the greatest growth is occurring at price points where Apple does not compete.

Huawei's shipments jumped from 9.3 to 13.7 million units, giving it a market share of less than five percent. Lenovo shipments rose from 7.9 million units to 12.9 million units. Lenovo's smartphone business is growing quickly, but the company is having a tough time in high-margin Western markets. LG's shipments grew from 10.3 million units to 12.3 million units.