HELSINKI/SEOUL: Samsung Electronics and HTC are predicted to be the big winners in the global cellphone market in the second quarter, benefiting from booming demand for their smartphones running Google's software.

Google's Android software platform in just a few years has taken the No 1 spot on the smartphone market, and analysts are increasingly convinced its growth helped Samsung last quarter to end Nokia's 15-year reign as the largest smartphone maker globally.

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Nokia and LG Electronics -- who have failed to keep up with the smartphone market -- lost market share in the quarter, showed a Reuters poll of 46 analysts.

"We expect second quarter earnings to reveal a widening gulf between the winners and losers and further illustrate the 'changing of the guard' as Apple, HTC and Samsung continue to increase market share," said CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber.

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Apple is due to report on July 19 and Nokia on July 21.

In terms of overall cellphone market volumes, Nokia still leads the pack with 95.5 million phones, boosted by its strong position in emerging markets, followed by Samsung's 73.7 million.

However, analysts expect Samsung will narrow the gap in the coming quarters and one sees it overtaking Nokia in 2012.

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They expect Apple sold some 16.9 million iPhones in the second quarter, twice as many as a year ago, but less than in the previous quarter as the novelty of its iPhone 4 model has started to wear off.

Taiwan's HTC, which has quickly climbed the charts and is now the seventh largest cellphone maker globally, is expected to have sold 11.4 million phones in the quarter, compared with just 5.4 million a year earlier.

The cellphone market is expected to see little impact from growing economic worries and show a healthy 10.7 percent volume growth in the quarter, helped by strong demand for smartphones and good demand for cheapest models on emerging markets.

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