Apple's iPhone 5C apparently took pride of place under Christmas trees in 2013 as it outsold the competition, new data can reveal. 

Although Apple doesn't break down sales of individual iPhone models, that hasn't stopped analysts taking apart Apple financial documents to give us an idea of what sales supposedly are per model.

The plastic iPhone 5C was released alongside the flagship iPhone 5S as an affordable alternative. Many commentators considered it a failure, but these new sales figures show it outsold Windows Phone devices, BlackBerry handsets and even flagship Android phones between 1 October and 31 December 2013.

According to the figures, total iPhone 5C sales were 12.8 million units for that period. By comparison Nokia Lumia handsets, which make up 90 per cent of Windows Phone sales, totaled 8.2 million sold. BlackBerry sold just 6 million units, under half the number of iPhone 5C handsets shifted.

READ: Apple iPhone 5C review

When it comes to Android, which as a complete market is currently outselling iPhones on the whole, looking at individual models the picture is very different. In the same period, Samsung sold 9 million Galaxy S4 models. Even LG's G2, which had a lot of marketing, reportedly only sold 2.3 million units.

It is worth taking into account a number of market factors, for example Apple discounted the price of the iPhone 5C in the run up to Christmas, and the phone's like the Samsung Galaxy S4 had been around for longer, and cost more, and were prime for upgrade in the new year.  

If the breakdown of the figures are correct, and there is no reason to believe they aren't, this is still a winning outcome for Apple on the introduction of a new affordable category of iPhone. Suggesting that the move to create a mid-range affordable handset is paying off, something that will no doubt be further fuelled by the introduction of the 8GB model in the UK last week, and rumours that the company has plans to upgrade the phone alongside the launch of an expected iPhone 6.