Apple Inc.'s worldwide marketshare of smartphones slipped at 15 per cent in Q1 2014, falling from 17 per cent around the same quarter of 2013, a report from Strategy Analytics found.

According to the report, Apple showed below-average growth at 17 per cent with worldwide iPhone shipments reaching 43.7 million.

Rival Samsung's worldwide marketshare also slipped at 31 per cent as compared with its 32 per cent in 2013. However, it still holds larger marketshare than Apple. Samsung's worldwide smartphone shipments reached 89 million.

Overall, Apple remained the leader in terms of the premium market segment with Samsung having difficulty in this category.

"Apple remains strong in the premium smartphone segment, but a lack of presence in the entry-level category continues to cost it lost volumes in fast-growing emerging markets such as Latin America. Samsung continues to face tough competition from Apple at the higher-end of the smartphone market and from Chinese brands like Huawei at the lower-end," the report said.

Combining Apple and Samsung's worldwide marketshare, there was a 50 per cent decline from Q1 2013 to 47 per cent in Q1 2014 as competition from the second-tier smartphone brands grew stronger.

"HUAWEI remained steady with 5 percent global smartphone marketshare in Q1 2014, while LENOVO has increased its global presence from 4 percent to 5 percent share during the past year. Huawei is expanding swiftly in Europe, while Lenovo continues to grow aggressively outside China into new regions such as Russia."

The report warned that if Lenovo's reported takeover of Motorola take place, the competition will get more challenging for both Apple Inc and Samsung.

By and large worldwide smartphone shipments grew 33 per cent from 213.9 million units in Q1 2013 to 285.0 million in Q1 2014 the report said. The growth was attributed to a healthy demand coming from the regional market.

The impressive demand from Asian market counterbalanced the slow demand coming from markets across North America.

The report was prepared by Ken Hyers, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics and Linda Sui, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics.