With analysts openly chattering about how Cupertino needs to take a few lessons from Samsung on how to innovate in the smartphone market, a reality check: during the last quarter of 2012, the iPhone 5 was the best selling smartphone in the world. And the second best-selling smartphone? The iPhone 4S, edging the Galaxy S3 out by over 2 million units.

The reearch comes from Strategy Analytics’ Handset Country Share tracker service, the iPhone 5 together accounted for 1 in 5 of all smartphones shipped worldwide in Q4 2012.

Coming in third place? The venerable Galasy S3, which shipped 15.4 million units and which now accounts for a 7.1% slice of global marketshare, having proven wildly popular in America, Europe and Asia.

According to Strategy Analytics, the reason for this is because the Galaxy SIII’s popularity has peaked. That’s actually good news for Samsung, since the Galaxy S4 is likely due to land in just a couple weeks at Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.

• SourceStrategy Analytics