Samsung’s Galaxy S Smartphone Series Passes 100M Channel Sales, Driven By Flagship Galaxy S3

Samsung just announced another smartphone sales milestone: its Galaxy S series has passed channel sales (or sales to retailers, not end users) of more than 100 million units since launching in May 2010, the Korean conglomerate announced via its Flickr stream. The sales were driven in large part by the series’ flagship Galaxy S3:

Samsung Electronics’ flagship Galaxy S series surpassed the accumulated sales record of 100 million units from the supply side in only 2 years and 7 months after its launch in May 2010. Galaxy S III is selling at much faster rate of 30 million in 5 months and 40 million in 7 months, after becoming a million seller in only 50 days after its release last May. Currently, its average daily sales are 190,000 units. The driving force behind Samsung Electronics’ rise to the top on the global smartphone market is Galaxy S II which is gaining ground as a steady seller hitting the sales of over 40 million in only 20 months.

Last week, Samsung issued its preliminary earnings guidance for Q4, saying that it expected a record quarter with consolidated profit of around 8.8 trillion Korean won ($8.3 billion), on consolidated sales of approximately 56 trillion Korean won ($53.6 billion). The Q4 figure compares to 8.06 trillion Korean won in the previous quarter, and 4.66 trillion Korean won in the year ago quarter. Samsung’s winning streak of five record quarters in a row, however, could end in Q1 on weaker seasonal demand for its smartphones, due in part to markets in emerging countries reaching saturation.

Samsung reportedly hopes, however, that it will ship 510 million phones in 2013, or 20 percent more mobile phones than it did in 2012. This is an optimistic goal based on a report from research firm Gartner, which estimates that Samsung will actually ship closer to 300 million smartphones.