While the attention of the media may have been on the Samsung/Apple patent suit, consumers have been paying more attention to the companies' phones. Since its debut in May, Samsung's third-generation Galaxy S phone has sold 20 million units worldwide.
Though not perfect, the phone has "head-turning" attributes, as our reporter Rosa Golijan discussed in her review, not least of all a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED high-definition display.
This news suggests that the smartphone market really is shaping up to be a two-horse race between Samsung and Apple, with other contenders such as Motorola and HTC still groping for a hit of this magnitude. Needless to say, that other horse is doing pretty well, too.
In the first quarter that the iPhone 4S was available (the period of October through December 2011), iPhone sales reached 34.5 million. Apple didn't break out how many were iPhone 4S model, but it's likely that the particular phone quickly reached the 20 million mark. (In the following quarters, Apple sold 35.1 and 26 million iPhones, respectively.)
Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.
