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Samsung Galaxy S and S2 reach humungous 30 million sales

Samsung's Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 phones have together reached 30 million sales -- a huge milestone, but it's not yet challenging Apple.

Andrew Lanxon Editor At Large, Lead Photographer, Europe
Andrew is CNET's go-to guy for product coverage and lead photographer for Europe. When not testing the latest phones, he can normally be found with his camera in hand, behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food. Sometimes all at once.
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Andrew Lanxon
2 min read

Samsung today makes the proud boast that its Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 Android smart phones have together found their way into 30 million pockets.

Samsung reached the 10 million mark for its flagship Galaxy S2 phone faster than any other device in its range. The older Galaxy S has so far totted up nearly 20 million sales, making it the most popular phone ever in Samsung's mobile lineup.

We're not surprised the Galaxy S2 has done so well -- we're massive fans of its large, clear screen, powerful processor and slim body. So keen, in fact, that we bestowed our much-coveted Editors' Choice award upon its skinny frame. The Galaxy S may be an older model, but it's still clearly doing well too.

Samsung is justifiably pleased with these figures, but the shine may be rubbed off a little if you compare them to the iPhone. Apple managed to sell over 20 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2011 alone, and 4 million of its new iPhone 4S were sold within three days of its launch.

Still, selling 30 million phones is still a magnificent accomplishment (it's precisely 30 million more phones than we've ever sold, for example) and it's put Samsung as the number two phone manufacturer, behind Apple.

The race for the top spot is certainly still on though. Word on the street is that the Galaxy S3 may be on its way and could be packing a 4.6-inch screen and a beastly 1.8GHz processor. Samsung will certainly be hoping this new chap breaks its own sales records and helps propel it to dizzying new heights of smart phone sales nirvana. Or just makes lots of money.

If the new model is a significant upgrade from the S2, it may well tempt many previous iPhone users who were disappointed with the incrementally updated iPhone 4S, rather than the fully upgraded iPhone 5 that many -- including us -- were hoping for.