Figures from market research firm Kantar Worldpanel showed that Android still remains as the most well-known mobile platform as its share of smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2013 rose in every major market, TechCrunch reported. In regions like Europe, its share is as high as 69%.

However, Samsung which has been at the forefront of Google's OS, is facing tougher competition in most regions from local players. In China, Xiaomi ranked Number 1 in sales for the quarter while other firms like Huawei are fast catching up, the report said.

Apple, on the other hand, has seen a total decrease in the 12 markets included in the Kantar survey. However, its new models for the iPhone 5 still attract high-end users as well as those in key markets like the US. In the US, Apple lost close to 6% of sales from the same period a year ago but still comprised for nearly 44% of smartphone purchases made during the holiday season, the report said.

According to Kantar, sales of Samsung in the European markets of UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain went down 2.2 percentage points to 40.3% because of the competition. In China, a key market of the Korean OEM, sales comprised only 23.7%, which is flat compared to the previous year's figure, the report said.

The Samsung sales drop especially for its high margin devices is also accompanied by declining growth in profits. The report quoted analyst Dominic Sunnebo who wrote, "It's no surprise that everyone is concentrating on high growth China, but currently local brands are proving clear winners."

Sunnebo cited Xiaomi which overtook Apple and Samsung in December and is now China's top selling smartphone. He considered this a remarkable achievement for a firm which began selling products only in 2010 and offers them almost exclusively through the Internet, the report said.