Nokia has been knocked off the top of the smartphone totem pole by Samsung, Japanese investment bank Nomura said today.

Worse, Apple will overtake the Finnish phone giant in Q3, the bank forecast, Reuters reports.

Both Samsung and Apple already outsell Nokia in Europe, in the overall mobile market and the smartphone arena, respectively.

But if Nomura is correct, Nokia is now in second place globally.

Nokia's one consolation is that it is still selling more low-end handsets than Samsung, keeping it at the top of the mobile chart.

All very well, but the market is shifting smartphone-ward, and voice-centric phones don't make the manufacturer as much money as smartphones do.

To regain smartphone market share, Nokia has ditched the ageing Symbian OS and its looking to Microsoft's Windows Phone to power future smartphones.

Will Nokia be able to release them in time to reverse its fortunes? ®

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