Another impressive sales milestone for Samsung. A few days after confirming it’s sold more than three million Galaxy Note II devices in around a month of sales, Samsung has revealed that sales of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy SIII, have passed 30 million in the roughly five months since the launch of the smartphone. Update: Samsung has confirmed the 30 million figure refers to “channel sales” — aka shipments — not to direct sales to customers.
The channel sales rate for the SGSIII is roughly 3x the rate for the predecessor to the device: the Galaxy SII. During a similar selling period (150 days), Samsung said the Galaxy SII sold 10 million units globally. This 3x rate is also reflected in Galaxy Note II sales vs the original Galaxy Note.
Samsung’s stats show a steady channel sales rate for the SGSIII, with 10 million units shipped in 50 days, 20 million in 100 days and 30 million in 157 days. For some context, Apple’s latest iPhone — the iPhone 5 — sold more than five million in its first three days on sale (NB: Apple’s number is direct to customer sales, rather than channel shipments). Apple has not broken out iPhone 5 sales since the launch but in its Q4 financial results Cupertino said it sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter.
Commenting on the SGSIII channel sales, Samsung’s head of its mobile comms division provided the following statement
