SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co, the world's top smartphone maker, sold 50.5 million smartphones in the second quarter, stretching its lead over rival Apple Inc, a report by research firm StrategyAnalytics showed.

Samsung took 34.6 percent of the global smartphone market, while Apple, which suffered a 26 percent sequential plunge in smartphone sales, had 17.8 percent of the market after selling 26 million iPhones in the June quarter, the report said.

Nokia took the third spot with a 7.0 percent market share, selling 10.2 million smartphones.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)