Samsung is still on top but its struggling product line this year, especially due to the lackluster Galaxy S5, has cost it market share, according to a recent update on the third quarter of 2014 from Gartner.

Meanwhile, Apple has surged with the popular iPhone 6's launch, while the last three place in the top five smartphone makers' world market share are Chinese companies -- including up-and-coming Xiaomi.

Gartner's Q3 2014 worldwide sales report for mobile phones is out, and according to the analysis company, the biggest news isn't the old "Samsung versus Apple" talking point, but the surge of popularity with China's Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo.

In Q3, these three Chinese smartphone vendors "grew their collective market share by 4.1 percentage points," according to Gartner (via MacWorld). This included Xiaomi, which found a spot in the top five smartphone vendors for the first time ever after experiencing a reported 336 percent increase in China. It's now holding neck-and-neck with Huawei and Lenovo for a veritable tie in third place.

All three Chinese brands, along with others, brought down the collective market share of Apple and Samsung by seven percentage points from the same time last year.

Expect this to continue, said Gartner's research director Roberta Cozza. "With the ability to undercut cost and offer top specs Chinese brands are well positioned to expand in the premium phone market too and address the needs of upgrade users that aspire to premium phones, but cannot afford Apple or Samsung high-end products," said Cozza.

China figured heavily into the very top smartphone vendors worldwide, as well. Sales of the iPhone grew overall by 26 percent in the third quarter, but China looks to be where Apple could experience some big gains at the end of the fiscal year.

"Over the holidays we expect record sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus," wrote Annette Zimmermann, director of research at Gartner, "but we should not underestimate the Chinese vendors and local brands," she cautioned. "Chinese players will continue to look at expanding in overseas emerging markets. In Europe prepaid country markets and attractive lost-cost LTE phones will also offer key opportunities for these brands."

Samsung saw a steep decline in smartphone sales in the third quarter, in both smartphone and feature mobile phone markets. Feature phones, for example, cost Samsung 10.8 percent over the year, while smartphone sales in China (also key for Samsung) declined 28.6 percent. Overall, Samsung dropped over seven percent from its worldwide market share at the same time last year.

While there have been hints of the end of the iPad-led tablet wave in 2015, and Q3 2014 wasn't particularly stellar for smartphone sales overall, Gartner said it expects the smartphone market to have reached 1.2 billion units sold by the end of 2014.