A new report from the Gartner Research Group (www.gartner.com), as reported by “AppleInsider” (www.appleinsider.com), says that iPhone accounted for 5.5% of all mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2012, making Apple the third-largest handset maker in the world.

Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached almost 428 million units in the third quarter of 2012, says Gartner. Overall mobile phone sales were down 3.1%, but smartphone sales were up 47% year-over-year.