Wildly Popular Samsung S3 Kills iPhone

Galaxy S3 “best-selling smartphone” globally beating iPhone 4S, in Q3
Samsung shipped an “impressive” 18 million Galaxy S3s, or 11% of all phones, while Apple slipped behind with 16.2 million iPhone 4S’, or a 10% share, Strategy Analytics said today.

This marks a massive threefold growth for Samsung who shipped just 5.4 million of the 4.8″ Galaxy S3, the previous quarter, Q2, and has proven “wildly popular” with users across North America, Europe and Asia, analysts said.

“A large touchscreen, extensive distribution and generous operator subsidies have propelled the Galaxy S3 to the top spot,” said Strategy Analytics. 

However, the Galaxy S3’s top dog position is likely to be short-lived, Strategy analysts predict, and likely to be overtaken by the new iPhone 5 next quarter:

“We expect the new iPhone 5 to out-ship Samsung’s Galaxy S3 in the coming fourth quarter of 2012.”

The low numbers on Apple’s 4S last quarter suggest consumers temporarily held off buying it in order to upgrade to the iPhone 5, released in September 21.

A massive 6 million Apple iPhone 5s were also shipped during the Q3 period, despite an availability of just under 10 days during the quarter. In all, Apple shipped over 22 million phones in the quarter.

Other non- iPhone or S3 models shipped 128 million units.