Apple's iPhone sales edge out competition in 4Q

Apple is back on top of the fourth-quarter smartphone sales market for the first time in three years.

Apple’s iPhone sold a record 74.8 million units during the fourth quarter, representing 20.4 percent of the global market, according to research by Stamford, Conn.-based information technology firm Gartner.

The last time the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech company led fourth-quarter smartphone sales was in 2011, according to CNNMoney.

Those sales put Apple ahead of its primary smartphone competitor, South Korean company Samsung, which held 19.9 percent in the same quarter of 2014.

Smartphone sales reached an all-time high of 1.2 billion total units sold during all four quarters of 2014, a 28 percent jump over the previous year.

Read more from CNNMoney.