Samsung beats Apple for number one spot, says report

Samsung has pushed ahead of Apple to claim the position of number-one smartphone manufacturer, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing a person familiar with the situation.

During the second quarter, Apple held 19% of the smartphone market, with Samsung just behind it with 18% and Nokia in third position with 15%, according to data from Strategy Analytics. While Apple announced earlier this week that it sold 17.1 million smartphones during its quarter ending Sept. 24, Samsung, which will report the earnings results of its fiscal 2012 third quarter Oct. 28, is expected to have shipped between 20 million and 30 million smartphones, according to Neil Mawston, director of Strategy Analytics' Wireless Device Strategies division.

On Oct. 17, Samsung announced that it was celebrating global sales of more than 30 million Galaxy S and Galaxy S II smartphones. In the five months since the launch of the Galaxy S II, it had already sold more than 10 million, reaching the figure quicker than any device in Samsung's history. The two-year-old Galaxy S, it added, is closing in on sales of 20 million units, "making it the highest-selling mobile device in Samsung's portfolio to date and another record-breaker for the company and the mobile market."

Samsung hopes the Galaxy Nexus, introduced this week at the AsiaD event in Hong Kong (Unfiltered: Google's 'Ice-Cream Sandwich' finally arrives) will also help it to fill its trophy case. The first Android phone to run version 4.0, code-named Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy Nexus will enter the holiday season head to head with Apple's new iPhone 4S — which, with sales of more than 4 million units in just its first three days — will be forcing Samsung to seriously hustle, if it's to maintain its new crown.