Nokia has managed to hold on to its market leading position, despite repeated reports suggesting its smartphone handsets are being outsold by its competitors.

Much of its strength lies in the Finnish firm's ability to sell its low end phones in developing markets, strong sales in these regions offsetting losses in others.

However, its Nokia's high end smartphones that are likely to come under the most pressure in the coming years, with a report posted by ABI Research analyst Michael Morgan suggesting the company's leadership could be severely challenged by Korean firm Samsung in the near future.

Sliding share

Citing sales for the last two quarters and year on year comparisons, ABI Research pegs Nokia's third quarter shipments for 2010 at 110.4 million – up from last year's equivalent figure of 108.5 million.

Overall growth in handset sales means Nokia is losing market share to its rivals, however, its share falling to 31.9 percent.

Samsung, meanwhile - bolstered by the success of the Galaxy S and the launch of its own bada platform - saw shipments rise from just over 60 million units in Q3 2009 to 71.4 million in Q3 2010.

"While taking the smartphone world by storm, Samsung also maintained growth in the shrinking feature phone segment that makes up 80 percent of its shipments and outperformed the market as a whole," Morgan claims in his report.

"ABI Research believes that these across the board improvements signifies that Samsung has the potential to go toe-to-toe with Nokia in all but the lowest cost handset segments."

Apple's core appeal

But while Samsung's breadth of handsets means it's poised to take charge in several regions, ABI Research believes Apple's strength lies in its ability to garner loyalty around just one product – iPhone 4.

ABI's figures suggest iPhone shipments have almost doubled year on year to 14.1 million units in Q3 2010, offering growth of 68 percent over the previous quarter.

"The iPhone 4 has proven that Apple can continually deliver the features, style and magic that will drive consumers to pay top dollar for the privileged of ownership," Morgan adds.

"ABI Research believes that Apple's loyal ownership base will provide stability while addressing new segments such as CDMA iPhones will deliver continued growth over coming couple of years for Apple."

Rest of the pack

Elsewhere in the report, Morgan paints a picture of a market largely adversely effected by the success of the major players at the top of the tree.

RIM, he notes, is going to have difficulty maintaining its business base while simultaneously appealing to the general consumers it needs to tap up to compete with Apple and Android in the US.

Sony Ericsson, meanwhile, runs the risk of becoming an also ran in the Android market, with the brand failing to stand out as its fellow OEMs rush to product handsets running Google's OS.

You can read the report in full, which includes a ranking of all the major manufacturers, over on Fierce Wireless.