The last quarter of 2011 has seen Apple regain third place in global smartphone sales, which is all thanks to the release of the Apple iPhone 4S.

Figures released by IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker show that Apple have reclaimed third place in phone sales in the last quarter of 2011. At the same time last year Apple were behind LG in fourth place with a share of 4%, which has now grown to 8.7% in the 4th quarter of 2011. Meanwhile, LG's market share has dropped from 7.6% down to just 4.1% giving Apple more than double LG's share.

Samsung closed significantly on Nokia because there share rose a massive 20.9% on the same time last year due to the success of the Galaxy SII, Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Tab. Nokia's share dropped by 8.2 per cent down to 26.6%, which they'll be hoping to reverse in the coming year.

The global sales for the whole year showed a similar story but with Apple achieving a lower growth level, but that's because they didn't release the Apple iPhone 4S until last quarter of 2011.

We can only see Samsung and Apple getting stronger over the next year, but 3G is interested to see just how Nokia fare with their Windows smartphones.