After proclaiming Samsung as the new mobile phone shipment king in Q1 2012, market research company Strategy Analytics (SA) has turned its attention to the second quarter of the year.

The analytics firm has forecasted that global smartphone shipments will increase by around 38% year-on-year (yoy) during Q2 2012. SA further asserted that economic slowdowns in the Eurozone, Asia as well as the lucrative US markets will place a temporary cap on growth in the short term.

Despite this limitation, SA noted that there are a few major new models on the way, most notably Apple’s iPhone 5, which should play its part in stabilising shipment volumes during the second half of 2012.

The company stated that LTE (4G) technology, used on smartphone the likes of the Nokia Lumia 900, will remain the mobile industry’s most important segment in terms of growth, with shipments growing by as much as tenfold this year.

In related news, market research firm ABI Research recently revealed the extent to which Samsung and Apple are dominating the smartphone market, with these two firms capturing 55% of global smartphone shipments in Q1 2012 and more than 90% of the market’s profits.