For years, Nokia has been attempting to revive its market share in the mobile industry with a boost in smartphone sales. However, the platform it has chosen simply did not work. However, recent numbers point out that Nokia's market share is slowly rising in the United States. 

In a report by GSM Arena, Counterpoint Research showed in its latest study that the Finnish manufacturer is now 4th in terms of market share in the US in the smartphone niche, behind Apple, Samsung and LG. 

During the third quarter of this year, Nokia got 4.1 percent of the total market share. It may look small, but it's thrice its former market share several months back - that's a feat on its own. 

Meanwhile, Apple and Samsung got 33.7% and 33.6% of the market respective. LG retains third position with 8.6 percent.

According to GSM Arena, the rise in market share is perhaps the product of Nokia's strategy of 'distributing' its Lumia devices across US carriers. The Lumia 925 landed only on AT&T, while the 928 is only available on Verizon. Other Lumias were only made available in one or two carriers across the US. 

This is definitely an improvement for the Windows Phone-powered Nokia brand, but it may not matter anymore as the Microsoft buyout moves in closer.