According to Milton Keynes-based research firm Strategy Analytics, the July-September quarter witnessed Samsung Electronics emerge as the world's foremost smartphone manufacturer, outshining Apple with a noteworthy 44 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in shipments.

Going by the statistics brought forth by Strategy Analytics, the shipments of Samsung - the South Korean firm forayed into the smartphone market in earnest only in 2010 - stood at 27.8 million during the last quarter; giving the company a 23.8 percent grab of the smartphone market share. The shipments of the company have leaped almost four times from the figures one year back.

In comparison, Apple reported 17.1 million shipments in the same period, with its market share being 14.6 percent.

The third place among the handset makers was occupied by the erstwhile market-leader Nokia, which now holds only a 14.4 percent share of the market; and is looking for some kind of a turnaround in fortunes with the introduction of new smartphones based on Microsoft's Windows Phone software.

With the sales of Samsung having skyrocketed larghely because of a sleek production system which is quick to bring on new products to market, Kim Hyun-joong - a fund manager at Samsung's shareholding firm Midas Asset Management - said: "In the handset division, Samsung has no real rival models to challenge its products except for the iPhone 4S."

Hyun-joong also added that the smartphone market dominance by Samsung and Apple will continue in the fourth quarter as well.