Samsung Electronics Co has sold more than
30 million Galaxy S3 smartphones in about five months. The news comes a week after the company said
sales of its Galaxy Note 2 surpassed 3 million units in 37 days.
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 Inc unveiled the iPhone 5 in September, Samsung launched an advertising campaign poking fun at the new iPhone.
The South Korean firm said the
S3 is selling at a much faster rate than its predecessor announced a year ago, the Galaxy S2. The S2 took 14 months to hit 30 million sales.
Samsung Galaxy S3 has, thus, become one of the fastest selling smartphones in the world.
The runaway demand for high-end smartphones fueled 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 per cent of its third-quarter operating profit from the division that makes mobile devices, cameras and computers.
Samsung does not disclose its quarterly smartphone sales figures, but analysts and research firms say the company sold a record 56-58 million smartphones in July-September.
Research firm IDC ranks the South Korean firm as the world's top smartphone seller in the last three quarters. It said in the latest July-September period, Samsung sold 56.3 million smartphones versus Apple's 26.9 million.
With inputs from Associated Press
PHOTO: Associated Press 
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