Samsung Galaxy S Smartphone Lineup Clears Nine Figure Milestone

What may be arguably Apple's biggest rival, Samsung, started unleashing its biggest line of phones, the Galaxy S line, just under three years ago. But with the approach of the three year anniversary of the Galaxy S line, and three such models having been released in the interim, Samsung now has new reason to celebrate: the crossing of a major milestone.

Samsung reported earlier today that it had sold fully 100 million units of Galaxy S smartphones since their launch just under three years ago. The Galaxy S accounted for a quarter of that number, at 25 million, while the follow-up version, the Galaxy S II, sold 40 million. Just to make things even more impressive, the Galaxy S III currently stands at 41 million, putting the total to just around 106 million total units sold. What's more, elements of the analyst community are already expecting a new Samsung Galaxy S model to make an appearance--at least on an announcement level--by summer.

The Galaxy S line was commonly regarded as a counter to the iPhone line of products from Apple, which were rapidly taking over the smartphone market as a whole. The Galaxy S line provided an alternative to the Apple line, which had a terrific phone but premium pricing to go with it. Given that Samsung managed to beat both Nokia in cell phone sales and Apple in smartphone sales last year, according to reports from IHS iSuppli, it could be said that the strategy worked. What's more, Samsung managed to do it in around two and a half years--the Galaxy S was originally released in May of 2010--what it took Apple nearly four years to do, as Apple's iPhone line didn't hit the 100 million sales mark until March of 2011, nearly four years after its launch.

We've already seen Apple cut its iPhone 5 component orders just recently in part owing to the ground gained by its various competitors, the Samsung Galaxy S line strong among them. The question from here, naturally, is what's to follow? If what's currently going on continues, the Galaxy S line may well continue to surpass the iPhone line, and in clearer ways still. Some have already projected that a new iPhone will be showing around May or June, and though that's still somewhat conjectural, it would be interesting nonetheless to see the next iPhone and the next Galaxy S go head to head, in the market proper, as well as get subjected to benchmark comparisons in side-by-side testing alike.

The year 2013 could prove to be a very big year indeed for smartphones of all stripes, especially those with Apple and Samsung brand names attached to them. Only time will ultimately tell just how far all this goes, but it should be quite the show all the same.