Samsung's strong smartphone sales happily coincide with hard times for Nokia

Samsung joined Apple at the top of the global smartphone ranking list during the third quarter, blowing past long-time leader Nokia with shipments of 19.2 million smartphones and gaining an 18% share of the global pie, Strategy Analytics reported this morning.

While a year ago, Nokia shipped 23.8 million smartphones, followed by Apple with 8.4 million and Samsung with 3.1 million, during the 2011 second quarter Apple shipped a stunning 20.3 million iPhones to Nokia's 16.7 million smartphones.

The rearrangement of the top-three lineup speaks not just to troubled times at Nokia, but the increasing sweet spot that smartphones represent in Samsung's tech lineup.

"Despite the challenging business environment and global economic uncertainties, we achieved continued year-on-year revenue growth in the second quarter driven by mobile device sales, particularly the success of our smartphones,” Robert Yi, vice president and head of Samsung Electronics’ Investor Relations Team said in a statement today, sharing the company's second-quarter fiscal results.

Samsung's Mobile Communications Business saw revenues jump 45% year-on-year, as its mobile handset sales increased "in the high-single-digit range quarter-on-quarter," the rather secretive company shared in its release, "driven by brisk sales of smartphones including the flagship Galaxy SII."

Samsung's average handset price also increased by more than 10% during the quarter.

Going forward, Samsung expects mobile phone sales to increase by 15% during the second half of the year, it will offer its Galaxy Tab in additional sizes and — as struggling competitor Motorola has thoroughly noted — it plans to introduce new 4G LTE-enabled devices.

During Samsung's earnings call with analysts, executives were similarly mute about Galaxy Tab sales, leading analysts to speculate, the Wall Street Journal noted, that "Samsung is worried that talking about its cellphone and tablet products will undermine the company in its legal battle with Apple."

The Journal added that Samsung executives rarely speak to the press and its chairman "is practically a recluse (though Korean reporters always seem to know when he's walking through an airport").

In April, the iPhone maker served Samsung with a suit, accusing it of "slavishly" copying the designs of its iPhone and iPad in its own products.

True or not, Apple could barely be enjoying stronger sales, with Strategy Analytics noting that, even in overall handset figures including feature phones (which Apple doesn't offer) Apple managed to come in fourth place, just a point behind third-place LG, "the closest Apple has ever been," wrote Tom Kang, director at Strategy Analytics.

Nokia, with sales of 88.5 million handsets, managed to hang on to the number one spot in overall handset sales, with Samsung, with sales of 74 million units, hardly far behind it.