Samsung should send a thank you note to Apple for holding back the iPhone 5 release until September. Samsung managed to sell a record 3 million Galaxy S II Android smartphones in just 55 days. Eat your heart out Apple.
Samsung boasted the record Galaxy S II sales numbers in a press release on July 3, saying it beats the record of the original Galaxy S smartphone by 30 days. Samsung sold 3 million Galaxy S handsets in 85 days, it claims. Samsung sold more than 10 million original Galaxy S smartphones worldwide.
Most of the Galaxy S II sales, Samsung says, were in Europe and Asia, where the phone is now available, as well as Latin America. According to the company, Samsung Electronics topped the Austrian smartphone market with the market share of 30 percent. It also seized 36 percent of the smartphone market in Switzerland.
One important thing Samsung forgot to mention is when the Galaxy S II smartphone will arrive on U.S. shores. With no official word from Samsung on the U.S. release, speculation is plentiful.
AndroidSpin reports the Galaxy S II will be rebranded as Samsung Within for Sprint, set to arrive in late July, and a similar story unfolds for the Verizon version via ComputerWorld and for the AT&T version via Engadget. Note that Samsung used a similar strategy to slightly rebrand and repackage the original Galaxy S for each carrier as well.
If Samsung is indeed aiming for a late July release of the Galaxy S II on all major U.S. carriers, the company will be able to continue to enjoy two more months before Apple is expected to release the iPhone 5, which would curb the sales for Samsung's look-alike, albeit more powerful (than the iPhone 4) Android smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy S II is an Android 2.3 smartphone, with a superthin design, a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a dual core processor and 4G speeds. In the PCWorld review of the Galaxy S II, my colleague Ginny Mies gave extra points to the phone for the big and bright display but noted the lack of a camera shutter button and the plethora of preinstalled software.
