Growth in the global cellphone market was set to slow slightly to 12% in the quarter to September, but there were no signs of a major slowdown, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Friday.

"There are no credible signs yet of any major double-dip downturn in the handset industry, but that could, of course, quickly change if overall economic conditions were to deteriorate again across the major markets," the research firm said.

Cellphone market volumes grew 13% in the second quarter, it added, boosted by demand for cheap models in emerging markets and for high-end phones in mature regions.

Canada's Research in Motion - which reached fourth position globally in the first quarter - maintained this position in the three months to June, selling 11.2million BlackBerry units, just ahead of Sony Ericsson's 11million handsets.

Market shares of the top three - Nokia, Samsung and LG Electronics - changed a little in the quarter, with Nokia holding onto 36% of the market, Strategy Analytics said. Samsung holds 21% of the market and LG 10%.

Strategy Analytics warned that the introduction of many smartphone models for the holiday sales-fuelled fourth quarter was set to weigh on handset vendors' profit margins.