Samsung flogged more phones than Apple between July and September, overtaking the Cupertino squad with 27.8 million smart phone shipments, according to stats from research firm Strategy Analytics.
Apple meanwhile sold 17.1 million brainy blowers in the three-month period, followed by Nokia which shipped 16.8 million, the BBC reports.
Those figures give Samsung a 23.8 per cent market share. Impressive stuff, but before you declare Apple dead in the water it's worth bearing in mind that between July and September many Apple fans will have been holding off buying a new phone, knowing that a new iPhone was incoming.
That new iPhone turned out to be the iPhone 4S, which sold 4 million units within three days of being on sale, so we'd not be surprised if the figures for the final quarter of this year show Apple back on top.
It's interesting to see Samsung drawing level with Apple though -- while the iPhone maker continues to batter Samsung in the courtroom, the South Korean tech giant is pumping out some very cool gadgets, such as the popular Samsung Galaxy S2.
The half-smart-phone-half-tablet Galaxy Note goes on sale in a few days time, and we're also looking forward to the Galaxy Tab 7.7. Then of course there's the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which will be the first phone to run Ice Cream Sandwich, the very latest version of Android.
Across the board, a total of 117 million smart phones were sold between July and September, but you didn't need us to tell you that smart phones are popular.
Which do you prefer -- Samsung or Apple? Let us know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
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Comments 4
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anonymous 28 October, 2011 14:13
I believe Samsung and Apple should get out of the courtrooms and stop wasting money on legal battles, put the resources into R&D, then they could truely claim to be forward thinking tech companies.
I got the Galaxy S2 on contract upgrade from iphone 3gs and I would never think of going back. The S2 is excellent for sharing, Android market has nearly climbed to the appstore's wide spectrum of downloadable shiznit and finally when you upgrade your OS it doesnt throw a tantrum like a 5 year old in a supermarket who aint getting his sugar fix.
Peter Hudson 28 October, 2011 15:58
Same here, had a 3GS and when it came time to upgrade, the 4S was a huge disappointment. Got myself a Galaxy S2 and I'm so happy with it.
Apple have been failing for a while now on the iPhone. They seriously need to completely overhaul iOS and give it a fresh new look. Even windows phone 7 is better to use than IOS.
anonymous 28 October, 2011 17:53
YOU AND YOUR APPLE BIA....
Oh... wait.
George Bailey 28 October, 2011 18:05
That arguement of 4 million Iphone 4s will hold, the GS2 on sale in europe in 6 months prior to october in Europe, went on sale in USA a few weeks before the iphone 4S ,USA is the biggest smart phone market
so it doesn't make it obvious that iphone will sell more than Galaxy nexsus, gS2 , and possibly the GS3 , before thr next iphone 5 or 4S2 or whatever apple calls it, time the GUI Changes ,same as in 2007, talking about old!
Dont predict look at the iphone 5 rumours,all blogs were wrong,shame! all they got was SIRI