Samsung Galaxy S III: 20 million sold in 100 days

Fastest selling Samsung phone yet, will have to do battle with the upcoming iPhone 5

Apple and Samsung may be battling it out in courtrooms all over the world, but lets not forget what the real end game is for these companies: to actually sell phones. The rivalry between them is also happening in the pocketbooks and wallets of the public.

Samsung has sold 20 million units of its Galaxy S III in its first 100 days, the company announced Thursday.

Since being launched in May, the phone has sold 6 million units in Europe, 4.5 million in Asia, 4 million in the United States and 2.5 million in Korea, where Samsung is based.

At a rate of around 200,000 per day, this is the shortest amount of time for any of Samsung’s devices to reach this goal. Sales for the Galaxy S III are three times larger than for the Galaxy S II, which was released in February 2011, and six times larger than the Galaxy S, which came out in March 2010.

So how do these numbers compare to Apple’s iPhone sales?

It’s a little hard to put the two side by side, but the Apple 4S sold one million in unit sales in just one day, and four million units in only 3 days.

For Apple that was an improvement over the iPhone 4, which sold 1.7 million units in three days. And the iPhone 3G, which sold one million units in its first weekend. 

According to comScore, Samsung was still the leading U.S. mobile manufacturer in July, with 25.6% of the market, down 0.3% from April. Apple, who comes in third behind LG, saw its share go up 1.9% from April, to 16.3%.

Of course, Apple has another major release coming up very soon. The iPhone 5 is scheduled to drop in less than a week and some are already predicting that the phone could sell 10 million units in a single week.

If those sales estimations come true, then Apple should easily be able to declare itself the winner, at least in terms of smartphone domination.

Apple vs. Samsung in court

Besides competing for supremacy in the marketplace, Apple and Samsung have been locked in a mud-slinging war over patent infringements for months. The two companies have brought more than 50 lawsuits against one another in 10 different countries. 

Decisions have come down in Japan, South Korea and the United States.

In Japan, A Tokyo district court handed Samsung a win when it ruled in a preliminary session that Samsung was not guilty of  violating patents on two Samsung smartphones, the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S2, as well as the Galaxy Tab tablet.

The South Korean court found both Apple and Samsung guilty, barring both of them from selling certain devices in the country.

The court also ruled in the opposite direction as well, saying Samsung had infringed on Apple patents at the same time, leading to bans on products for both companies.

Apple is now barred from selling its iPhone 4 or iPad 2 in South Korea, and Samsung can no longer sell 10 of its devices in South Korea, including the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets.

But the most decisive victory for Apple so far came in the United States, where the court ordered Samsung to pay $1.05 billion in damages, and will decide later this month whether or not Samsung products that violated Apple’s patents will be banned in the United States, a move which would be extremely costly to Samsung.

(Image source: pocket-lint.com)