After losing market leadership in the third quarter, Apple returned to the number one rank in global smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter as consumers flocked to buy the newly introduced iPhone 4S. Meanwhile, based on strong sales of its broad line of smartphone products, Samsung has become the world's largest smartphone brand for the entire year of 2011, marking the first time the South Korean electronics giant has held this distinction, according IHS iSuppli.

Apple in the fourth quarter of 2011 shipped 37 million smartphones worldwide, up 117 percent from 17 million in the second quarter. This represented the strongest sequential quarterly growth among the top-five smartphone brands. Apple's strong performance allowed it to slightly exceed Samsung's total of 36 million.