India's Micromax among world's top 10 mobile phone sellers this year: Gartner

Homegrown handset maker Micromax ranks among the top 10 global handset vendors with 1.8% market share during the January-March quarter, according to research firm Gartner.

Gartner's data showed the total sales (features and smartphones) stood at 460.3 million units during the first quarter of 2015, a 2.5% increase from the year-ago period.

Korean firm Samsung led by tally with 21.3% share, followed by Apple (13.1%), Microsoft (7.2%), LG (4.3%) and Lenovo (4.2%).

Others in the top 10 include Huawei (4%), Xiaomi (3.2%), TCL Communication (3.1%), ZTE (2.7%) and Micromax (1.8%).

"In light of their strong smartphone sales in the emerging markets, the Indian and Chinese phone manufacturers increased their footprint during the first quarter of 2015. Six of them were in the top 10 in the first quarter of 2015," Gartner Research Director Anshul Gupta said.

Global smartphones sales to end-users witnessed 19.3% increase to 336 million units during the first quarter of 2015, led by strong growth in emerging markets (excluding China).

The fastest growing regions were emerging Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa, Gartner said.

"During this quarter, local brands and Chinese vendors came out as the key winners in emerging markets. These vendors recorded an average growth of 73% in smartphone sales and saw their combined share go up from 38% to 47% during the first quarter of 2015," Gupta said.

Samsung had 24.2% share of the global smartphone market in the January-March 2015 quarter, followed by Apple (17.9%), Lenovo (5.6%), Huawei (5.4%) and LG (4.6%).