Research firm IDC recently released its estimates of global mobile phone sales for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2011. Their results found Apple moving past LG to claim third place in the rankings for the first time. The year before (in 2010), Apple was rapidly closing in on LG but fell back into fifth place behind ZTE during the third quarter as customers held off in anticipation of new iPhone hardware. The strong surge from the iPhone 4S launch ended up moving Apple up in the year’s final quarter and by a large enough margin that it was able to surpass LG in full-year numbers as well.

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