Samsung phone rings up 30m sales

Samsung has sold more than 30 million flagship Galaxy S III smartphones in about five months, making it one of the fastest selling smartphones in the world.

Samsung, the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, launched the smartphone at the end of May, months before competitors began shipping the latest versions of their top phones.

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 in September, Samsung launched an advertising campaign poking fun at the new iPhone.

The South Korean firm said the S III is selling at a much faster rate than its predecessor announced a year ago, the Galaxy S II. The S II took 14 months to hit 30m sales. Sales of the Galaxy Note II, which fills a market niche between smartphones and tablets, surpassed 3m in 37 days.

The runaway demand for high-end smartphones fuelled record profits at Samsung in recent quarters while other consumer electronics firms were hit by the global economic downturn that dented demand for TVs and personal computers.

Samsung, which also makes TVs, home appliances, semiconductors and display panels, got almost 70% of its third-quarter operating profit from the division that makes mobile devices, cameras and computers.

Experts forecast that Samsung will sell 67m smartphones in the October-December quarter. That would be about 10m units more than Samsung’s smartphone sales in the previous quarter.

Samsung does not disclose its quarterly smartphone sales figures, but analysts and research firms say the company sold a record 56-58m smartphones in July-September.

Research firm IDC ranks the South Korean firm as the world’s top smartphone seller in the last three quarters. In the latest July-September period, Samsung sold 56.3m smartphones versus Apple’s 26.9m, IDC said.