Samsung Electronics Co. took top place in global sales of Long-Term Evolution smartphones in the second quarter, beating its rival and first-quarter No. 1 seller Apple Inc., data showed Sunday.

According to the data by market researcher Strategy Analytics, Samsung sold 28.6 million LTE smartphones in the April-June period, grabbing a 32.2 percent market share.

The LTE smartphones run on broadband LTE networks that allow users access and stream data faster than on the 3G network.

The first-quarter top seller Apple sold 28.3 million LTE smartphones in the second quarter, down 4.4 million units from the previous quarter. Apple‘s market share also fell 8.6 percentage points to 31.9 percent in the second quarter.

LG Electronics Inc., Samsung’s smaller local rival, ranked third in global sales of LTE smartphones in the period, selling 5.2 million units for a 5.9 percent share. (Yonhap)