According to statistics firm IDC Nokia has dropped out of the top five phone maker, losing its place to Blackberry maker Research in Motion.
Despite an overall decline, RIM’s install base topped 80 million active users during the last quarter and it sold 7.7 million smartphones between July and September.
Only Apple and Samsung managed to sell more smartphones
Samsung is the world's leading smartphone seller, with more than 56.3 million devices being shipped during the same period, almost double second-placed Apple's 26.9 million.
Despite its lower shipment figures the iPhone maker managed to ship 10 million more units than it did last year.
ZTE and HTC also made the top five, however HTC marked a significant year-on-year decline in its quarterly results, shipping 7.3 million devices in 2012 compared to 12.7 million units in 2011.