Samsung Electronics rose to the world’s top smartphone seller in the five regions around the world except in North America in the third quarter of this year, a marketing research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) said on Sunday.

According to the research firm, in the July-September period, South Korea’s electronics giant captured the title as the world’s top smartphone seller in the five major regions – North America, Western Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Central and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

But in North America Samsung is still behind Apple, which sold 13.4 million smartphones compared to Samsung’s 10.5 million.

Samsung's success was attributed to the robust sales of its premium Galaxy Note 5 and mid-priced models including Galaxy A8 and Galaxy J5. Samsung Electronics sold 15.3 million units in Western Europe, 232 million units in the Asia-Pacific, 6.9 million units in Eastern Europe and 16.1 million units in the Middle East and Africa.

Samsung commanded 52.1 percent market share in the Middle East and Africa with its sales sharply up to three million units from the second quarter.

SA said that Samsung Electronics achieved upturn in smartphone sales for the first time since the first quarter of last year. This is attributed to solid sales in emerging nations including the Middle East, Africa and Middle East and Africa.

LG Electronics, meanwhile, sold 6.3 million smartphones in North America to rank third, but its performance was weak in other parts of the world.

Huawei, which is hoping to become the first Chinese smartphone maker to sell over 100 million handsets, sold 18.6 million in the Asia-Pacific region and also did well in Western Europe and the Middle East and Africa.