The hotly-contested smartphone market is constantly evolving, especially with the perennial launch of new devices and companies trying to outpace each other. Recently, Tomi Ahonen of The Community Dominates blog compiled global sales data from various research firms to reveal the top 10 smartphone manufacturers of Q3 2012.

Ahonen regularly compiles data from several analytic firms like Canalys, Gartner Inc., IDC, and Strategy Analytics. His recent statistic compilation for Q3 2012 reveals that with 56.2 million Samsung has emerged as the number one smartphone manufacturer, regaling Apple (26.9 million) to the second spot yet again.

According to Ahonen, the top 10 smartphone manufacturers for Q3 2012 are as follows:

1. Samsung - 56.2 million
2. Apple - 26.9 million
3. Huawei - 16.0 million
4. Sony - 8.8 million
5. ZTE - 8.0 million
6. HTC - 7.8 million
7. RIM - 7.4 million
8. LG - 7.2 million
9. Lenovo - 7.0 million
10. Nokia - 6.3 million

What's more Google-owned Motorola has dropped out of the top 10 and Nokia has slipped to the tenth spot from third spot last year.

"Nokia which was still 3rd biggest smartphone maker in Q2 falls to 10th and risks falling out of Top 10 for Christmas (there's a hot Chinese maker, Yulong, who sell smartphones under the brand Coolpad, who is eager to burst into the Top 10). And Huawei is making a big push up to separate from the pack to take clear 3rd ranking. Sony finally has its act together, is making profits once again with its handset unit and holds fourth place. Obviously Apple is without any challengers at second place, and Samsung sells more smartphones than the next 3 biggest smartphone makers combined," noted the blog.

Another interesting trend that has emerged is that Asian companies are dominating the smartphone market in terms of volume (seven of the companies in the list are Asian). Only Apple, RIM, and Nokia are the three brands which are not based in Asia. Per the data, China seems to have become the hotbed for mobile phones with local brands like Huawei, HTC, and Lenovo accounting for a combined 30.8 million. Lenovo made it to the top 10 for the first time.

It is anybody's guess what the future holds for smartphone makers, whether the trends will remain the same or see a shift in the near future.