HTC has fallen out of the top-10 handset vendor rankings published by Gartner. The smartphone specialist made its first appearance in Gartner's ranking of the world's top-10 handset vendors by unit sales in the second quarter of 2010.

HTC reported an 81% sequential decline in net profits to NT$1 billion (US$34.4 million) for the fourth quarter of 2012. Compared to a year ago, HTC's fourth-quarter earnings represented a fall from NT$11.02 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Meanwhile, China-based Lenovo and TCL Communication, which focus mainly on the sale of low-cost smartphones, both saw their overall handset shipments register on-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2012, the latest data compiled by Gartner show. Lenovo jumped into the top-10 handset rankings, while TCL stayed at No.7.

China-based Huawei Technologies also had a good fourth quarter, which helped it reach the No. 3 position among smartphone vendors for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2012, Gartner said. Huawei was ranked sixth in the global handset market during the quarter behind LG Electronics and local rival ZTE.

Apple and Samsung Electronics together raised their worldwide smartphone market share to 52% in the fourth quarter of 2012 from 46.4% in the prior quarter, according to Gartner.

"There is no manufacturer that can firmly lay claim to the No. 3 spot in global smartphone sales," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. "The success of Apple and Samsung is based on the strength of their brands as much as their actual products. Their direct competitors, including those with comparable products, struggle to achieve the same brand appreciation among consumers, who, in a tough economic environment, go for cheaper products over brand."

Samsung's overall smartphone sales continued to accelerate totaling 64.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, up 85.3% from the fourth quarter of 2011, Gartner disclosed. In 2012, Samsung totaled 384.6 million mobile phones sales, of which 53.5% (up from 28% in 2011) were smartphone sales.

Apple's sales reached 43.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, up 22.6% on year, Gartner said. In 2012, Apple totaled 130 million smartphone sales worldwide, up from 89 million units in 2011, while Nokia's sales slipped 53.6% to 39.3 million smartphones in 2012, according to Gartner.