Samsung Electronics overtook Nokia as the top mobile phone brand this year and took the lead over Apple in smartphones, a U.S. research firm said Tuesday.

According to IHS iSuppli, the Korean electronics giant made 29 percent of global cell-phone shipments this year, up from 24 percent in 2011.

Finland-based Nokia, however, saw its market share fall to 24 percent from 30 percent over the past year, ending its 14-year reign on top. In the meantime, Apple’s share slightly increased from 19 percent to 20 percent.

This is the first time for Samsung to top the global mobile phone market on a yearly basis, IHS said.

“The competitive reality of the cell-phone market in 2012 was ‘live by the smartphone; die by the smartphone,’” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst at IHS.

“Smartphones represent the fastest-growing segment of the cell-phone market and will account for nearly half of all wireless handset shipments for all of 2012. Samsung’s successes and Nokia’s struggles in the cell-phone market this year were determined entirely by the two companies’ divergent fortunes in the smartphone sector.”

The researcher said global smartphone shipments are expected to rise by 35.5 percent this year, while overall cell-phone shipments will increase by just one percent.

IHS said Samsung produces dozens of smartphone models every year that cater to all segments of the market from the high-end to low-end.

Nokia is transitioning its smartphone line to the Windows operating system, resulting in declining shipments from the company.

Sales of Nokia’s older Symbian-based phones have plunged, while sales of its new Microsoft Windows-based handsets have been modest so far, IHS said.

Samsung is expected to post the best performance among the top smartphones brands this year, with its share of global smartphone shipments increasing to 28 percent from last year’s 20 percent.

Nokia is set to suffer the biggest decline, with its share forecast to plunge 11 points to 5 percent.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)