Strategy Analytics' latest global smartphone sales report covering the third quarter of 2011 puts Samsung in first place with 27.8 million units sold, accounting for 23.8 percent market share, pushing Apple to second place with 17.1 million units. With its global presence on nearly every carrier at nearly every price point, Samsung's dominance comes as no surprise — particularly in light of the Galaxy S II's success — though it regularly jockeys with Apple and Nokia for top billing. Both of those companies have been in transition in the past few months: for Apple, the iPhone 4 was at the tail end of its flagship status, while Nokia has been scaling back Symbian (the platform that took it to dominance in the last decade) as it ramps up its Windows Phone efforts. Overall, smartphone sales grew some 44 percent year over year, but by all appearances, we're still years away from displacing feature phones entirely — indeed, Nokia still holds onto first place globally when you take all segments of the mobile phone market into account.