Samsung Galaxy III became the best-selling smartphone in the third quarter of 2012, significantly surpassing the former market leader – iPhone 4S.
According to Strategy Analytics, the current flagship of Samsung in the period from July to September of this year became the world leader in the number of smartphones shipped. Its shipments amounted to 18 million devices, which is 1.8 million more than the iPhone 4S for the same period of time. So in the third quarter, the Korean device accounted for 10.7% of shipments of all smartphones in the world. The share of iPhone 4S is slightly less – 9.7%.
In the second quarter of this year, the situation was completely different. The Galaxy III released in May accounted for only 5.4 million or 3.5% of global shipments, while the iPhone 4S accounted for 19.4 million or 12.7% of the market.
Analysts attribute the drop in the share of iPhone 4S shipments in July-August to low demand for the device, due to the expectation of the next model / price reduction. The low figures in September are the result of the release of the iPhone 5. The latter, by the way, sold 6 million boxes in the third quarter, thereby occupying 3.6% of the market in the third quarter.