Samsung Electronics saw its fourth-quarter smartphone sales lag behind rival Apple due to robust demand for the U.S. firm's iPhone 5, data showed Monday.

Samsung claimed 28.7 percent of the global smartphone market in the three-month period in terms of revenue, following Apple's 42.7 percent, according to the data by market researcher Strategy Analytics.

Apple's sales were boosted by a robust demand for its iPhone 5, its first long-term evolution (LTE) phone that hit shelves in September. Apple's iPhone 5 sales reached 27.4 the million units during the period, while Samsung' LTE smartphone sales reached the 11.6 million units.

LG Electronics also saw its spot in the global smartphone market rise to No. 3 for the first time since it entered the smartphone sector. LG claimed 3.2 percent of the market by revenue, beating competitors such as HTC and Sony.

HTC's market share stood at 2.9 percent, while Sony followed with 2.8 percent, according to the data.

In the meantime, Samsung was the most popular smartphone brand in China during 2012, with the company to reportedly triple its sales in the country during 2012, according to Strategy Analytics.

Nokia saw its market share within China decline significantly during 2012, plummeting to only 3.7% compared to 29.9% in 2011. Lenovo was in the second place spot with 13.2% of the Chinese market and Apple was in third with 11% of the market. Fourth-place was Huawei, with 9.9% of the market followed by the Chinese firm Coolpad with 9.7% of the market.