According to the recently-released updated rakings of smartphone manufacturers as per the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Apple is apparently losing ground to its closest competitor Samsung.

The rankings - which are updated on an annual basis - show that, during the last one year, Apple has launched only one new handset, the iPhone 5. In comparison, rival Samsung has not only released two new handsets, the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S4, but has also launched a number of other products.

However, in terms of customer satisfaction, Apple still continues to be the top smartphone maker, with a 2013 satisfaction ranking of 81 percent; as against Samsung's 76 percent. But, while Apple's satisfaction has dropped 2 percent from its 2012 ranking of 83 percent; Samsung's ranking has witnessed a notable 5 percent gain over its 2012 ranking of 71 percent.

As a consequence, Apple now has a gap of merely 5 percent over its rivals, while it was ahead of its rivals by 12 percent last year. Samsung's devices have become increasingly attractive to the buying public in the US, both in sales and in overall customer satisfaction with the Samsung brand.

About Samsung's noteworthy strides in the mobile device market, the American Customer Satisfaction Index report said: "The improvement of Samsung is the largest yet for any cell phone manufacturer, and earns Samsung a position even with the industry average and Nokia and just behind second-place Motorola.:"