South Korean electronics major Samsung on Monday announced that its flagship Galaxy S series smartphones surpassed 100 million units in sales.
The world smartphone leader reached this record-breaking 100 million mark within two years and six months since it launched its first Galaxy S series smartphone in June 2010.
Samsung listed the breakup of individual sales of Galaxy S series. The first smartphone of the S series, Galaxy S, crossed 24 million global shipments since its debut that year. Initially, Galaxy S crossed 10 million shipments within seven months of its launch.
Samsung's second iteration of the Galaxy S series, Galaxy S2, achieved around 40 million shipments since its launch in April 2011. Galaxy S2 made its first 10 million sales within five months of its debut.
Samsung's third and the latest smartphone from the Galaxy S series, Galaxy S3, made record sales of more than 40 million units within eight months since its May 2012 launch. Galaxy S3 made its first 20 million shipments in just 100 days, making it Samsung's fastest selling smartphone in the company's history.
Galaxy S3 sales took quite a big chunk out of Apple's smartphone market shares in the US and the global smartphone market, making Samsung the world's smartphone leader.
According to market research firm IDC (International Data Corporation), Samsung leads the global smartphone market with 31.3 percent market share. Rival Apple comes distant second with less than half of Samsung's share at 15 percent. Canadian smartphone maker RIM finishes the top three with mere 4.3 percent market share.
Few weeks back, Samsung announced that it breached the 10 million sales mark of its flagship Galaxy smartphone series in India.
"Innovative devices like the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy SII and SIII, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy Y have caught the imagination of customers and helped us democratise the smartphone experience in the Indian market," said Asim Warsi Samsung VP (Mobile), reported PTI.
The company has imprinted its leadership in emerging markets like India and China. According to CMR (CyberMedia Research) survey, Samsung leads the Indian smartphone market with 41 percent share.
Finnish handset maker Nokia comes a distant second with less than half the Samsung market share with 19.2 percent. BlackBerry smartphone maker RIM completes the top three with 12.1 percent.
Samsung is expected to continue its lead in the smartphone market because it seems to be only company to produce a variety of smartphones that match every budget needs of middle-class consumers around the world. The company boasts of smartphones from low-end to high-end handsets in the price range of Rs 4,500 to Rs 38,000.
According to various reports, Samsung is expected to unveil the fourth-iteration of its Galaxy S series, Galaxy S4 at least by mid-2013.
