Worldwide sales of mobile phones approached 305 million units in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 11.8 percent from a year ago, Gartner said this week.

“The economic environment continued to negatively impact mobile phones sales in both mature and emerging markets,” analyst Carolina Milanesi said.  “Replacement sales remained weak,” she added.  Gartner expects total sales for the year to reach 1.28 billion units.

Nokia sold 120.4 million mobile phones in the quarter and widened its market share to 39.5% although the company is far from the top in U.S. sales.  followed by Samsung at 15.2%, Motorola at 10%, LG at 8.8% and Sony Ericsson at 7.5%.

Sony’s recent phones are not very innovative, leading to the company’s market share slipping closer to fourth place than third, Milanesi said.

Another research company, NPD group, recently announced similar findings for U.S. sales.