Apple iPhone 5 and 4S are the Q4 bestsellers, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S III

Research firm Strategy Analytics finished its fourth quarter global smartphone sales calculations, and, as usual in the last quarter of recent years, Apple's iPhone took the lead.

It was reported before that the handset has been the most popular in terms of sales in the US, but the current report looks at the worldwide market, reaching the same conclusion.

Apple moved more than 27 million iPhone 5 units in the October-December period last year, as you can see in the tablet above, and even the iPhone 4S sold 17+ million, which made it go to second place. Third was Samsung's finest Galaxy S III with more than 15 million pieces sold. Of course, we are a few weeks away from the Galaxy S IV announcement, which might very well mean the tide will turn in the second and third quarter as they did last year. 

"Wash, rinse, repeat" might not be the case in 2013, however, as almost every manufacturer is coming with very strong contenders - the Sony Xperia Z and HTC One come to mind from the flagships announced so far, and MWC is sure to bring more heavyweights in the ring to challenge the Apple-Samsung duopoly, which we can all only benefit from.