While Gartner expects sales to pick up as the year progresses, it's shaving 20 million units off its sales projections for the year, according to another of the firm's analysts, Annette Zimmermann.

Developments Gartner expects to perk up sales later in the year include the continued rollout of 3G phones by local and regional manufacturers in China and introduction of handsets in the West based on new versions of Android and Windows, as well as the anticipated introduction of a new iPhone model from Apple.

Samsung was a clear winner during the quarter, Gartner noted. It knocked Nokia off the top spot it has held in the market since 1998, selling 86.6 million handsets and snatching 20.7 percent of the global market. It also regained the title of the world's number one smartphone maker from Apple, with sales of 38 million units. What's more, it became the number one maker of Android smartphones, selling 40 percent of the handsets for that platform. No other maker has more than 10 percent of that market, Gartner noted.

During the period, Samsung's and Apple's grip on the smartphone market continued to rise, the research firm said. Together, the pair owned 49.3 percent of the market, compared to 29.3 percent during the same period a year ago.

Gartner also reported that the market share of worldwide smartphone sales held by phones based on Google's Android operating system increased dramatically over the previous year, to 56.1 percent from 36.4 percent.