Samsung beats Apple in smart phone sales

[Larry-G]

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

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