Nokia’s mobile phone market share has dropped by 25 percent in the first quarter of 2011, a report revealed by Gartner said on Thursday.

Gartner, a technology research group, said this is the lowest for Nokia in the last 14 years. The Finnish cell phone giants went down to 30.6 percent last year at the same time. The company dropped by 5.5 points year-on-year and the share reading is the lowest since 1997.

Nokia released its own mathematical figures in April where they put first-quarter market share at 29 percent which was down from 33 percent in the first quarter of 2010. The company announced an essential restructuring earlier this year to trounce stern competition in the smartphone sector.

The Finnish company which had a global market share of 40 percent in 2008, nonetheless, will remain the industry leader as it ranks well ahead of second-place Samsung which holds 16 percent, followed by LG in third with 5.6 percent and Apple and RIM in fourth position with 3.9 and 3.0 percent respectively.

Nokia, in February, announced the company expected a brief period of uncertainty when it revealed that its Symbian sector is in favor of a partnership with Microsoft’s Windows Phone to produce smartphones. Gartner, however, said that Nokia is still to catch up in that sector as Android and Apple phones continue to dictate the smartphone competition.

Robert Cozza, Gartner’s chief research analyst, in the report said smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of general sales in the first quarter of 2011 which is an increase of 85 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, global mobile phone sales have increased by 19 percent, totaling the 427.8 million phones sold in the first quarter.

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