Samsung Electronics won back first place in the global long-term evolution phone market.

The world’s largest smartphone maker sold 27.2 million LTE handsets worldwide in the second quarter of this year. With its share reaching 47 percent, Samsung reclaimed the top spot from Apple, according to Strategy Analytics, a global market research firm on Sunday.

Its handset sales rose by 17 million and market share rose 22 percent from the previous quarter.

Strong iPhone 5 sales helped Apple take an early lead in the market with 54.1 percent and 41.3 percent share in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, respectively. However, the company slipped to second with its share in the second quarter falling to 23.5 percent.

Sony leapfrogged over LG Electronics to gain third place, posting 3.6 million in sales and 6.2 market share.

LG Electronics defended second place for three consecutive quarters in the global LTE phone market, but dropped to fourth place for the first time since entering the race.

Samsung’s strong performance stems from high sales of the Galaxy S4, a multitude of other LTE handsets, leading-edge technologies, and patent competitiveness, according to industry sources.

South Korea’s electronics giant has led LTE technologies since it unveiled the world’s first LTE Dongle, a device allowing the use of Internet by connecting to computers, in 2009, and the world’s first LTE handset, Craft, in 2010.

With the Galaxy S4 riding high and the Galaxy Note 3 launch date only a few weeks away, Samsung is expected to continue leading the market in the third quarter.

“Samsung Electronics is a company having total solutions for LTE including handsets, communications equipment, technology, and patents. Samsung will continue to be ahead of other rivals for some time,” observers said.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)