Samsung Electronics overtook Apple to recapture the title of world's top smartphone maker by volume in the first quarter of 2015, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Wednesday.

It said Samsung shipped 83.2 million smartphones worldwide and captured 24 per cent market share in the quarter, down from 31 per cent a year earlier but better than Apple's 18 per cent.

"Samsung continued to face challenges in Asia and elsewhere, but its global performance has stabilized sufficiently well this quarter to overtake Apple and recapture first position as the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume," Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston said in a statement. – Reuters