Samsung’s Galaxy S III bested the iPhone 4S in the third quarter of 2012 to become the world’s best-selling smartphone, but that victory will likely be short-lived as more and more consumers pick up the Apple iPhone 5.
According to stats from Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped 18 million Galaxy S III %displayPrice% at %seller% smartphones in the third quarter for 11 percent of the total smartphone market. The Apple iPhone 4S wasn’t too far behind with 16.2 million devices shipped, but many customers were likely waiting for the late September release of the iPhone 5.
Still, Android fans flocked to the 4.8-inch Galaxy S III. On Monday, Samsung confirmed that it has now sold 30 million of the smartphones overall. Samsung first unveiled the Galaxy S III during a London press event in May. It landed in Europe later that month, and made its debut in the U.S. in June on all major carriers.
“A large touch-screen design, extensive distribution across dozens of countries, and generous operator subsidies have been among the main causes of the Galaxy S3’s success,” Neil Shah, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement.
The iPhone 5 hit stores on Sept. 21 at the tail-end of the third quarter. Strategy Analytics estimated that Apple has already shipped about 6 million iPhone 5s, and “we expect the new iPhone 5 to out-ship Samsung’s Galaxy S3 in the coming fourth quarter of 2012 and Apple should soon reclaim the title of the world’s most popular smartphone model,” said executive director Neil Mawston.
Apple said last month that it sold 26.9 million iPhones during the quarter, but did not break out those numbers by iPhone model.
For more, see PCMag’s review of the Galaxy S III (slideshow above) and the iPhone 5.
