Samsung Galaxy S3 breaks 10 million sales mark

Samsung has confirmed that it has sold 10 million Galaxy S3 smartphones worldwide, after less than two months on sale.

Shin Jong-kyun, the president of Samsung's information technology and mobile communication division, told the Yonhap News Agency the device had passed the milestone, but stopped short of providing exact figures.

Before its launch on the 29 May in the UK, it was reported Samsung had received nine million pre-orders for the third generation Android device.

Samsung is shifting 190,000 Galaxy S3s everyday and is on course to sell 40 million handsets by the end of 2012.

It is estimated that Samsung is shifting 190,000 Galaxy S3s a day and, if sales continue at the current rate, the firm could be on course to sell 40 million handsets by the end of 2012.

In comparison, stalwart mobile manufacturers such as Nokia and RIM have been hemorrhaging market share. The Finnish firm, in particular, posted a second quarter operating loss of 826m and managed to ship just 4 million Windows Phone Lumia handsets in the three month period.

The success of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich handset is unsurprising. The Galaxy S3 received the coveted six stars from IT Pro, and is one of the best devices available on the market.

Standout features include the 4.8in Super AMOLED display with 1280 x 720 resolution, the 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos processor and superb battery life. Samsung also provides a 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, microSD card support and an 8-megapixel camera.

The main challenger to Samsung's dominance in the smartphone market is Apple, which is gearing up to launch the fifth generation iPhone as early as October.

The iPhone 5 is expected to boast a redesign with a screen larger than 3.5ins. There are also suggestions it could comes with a liquid metal frame, NFC and 4G support.