Gartner on Monday put out a new report that depicts Apple in a strong position to do that which seemed nearly impossible just five short years ago.

With sales of smartphones growing 20% just in the third quarter of 2014, Apple's momentum has put the iPhone maker in place to top sales from the once mighty-mobile force that is Nokia.

Apple's growth is attributed to a considerable degree to the type of device global mobile users are turning to these days.

“Sales of feature phones declined 25 percent in the third quarter of 2014 because the difference in price between feature phones and low-cost Android smartphones is reducing further,” said Roberta Cozza, research director at Gartner. "Samsung and Nokia experienced sharp double-digit declines in the third quarter, which let Apple get closer to Nokia, with only 5 million units separating these two vendors."

To check out the full report with corresponding tables and images, click here.

Source: Gartner