Samsung managed to ship over 20 million smartphones in Q3 2011, one report says, and this means it shipped more smartphones in that quarter than any other company, including Nokia and arch-nemesis Apple. The two latter manufacturers cranked out 16.8 million and 17.1 million smartphones last quarter, respectively.
Samsung has proven itself to be the leading Android phone vendor over the past year or so, releasing successful devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S II. Just yesterday it teamed up with Google to announce the new Galaxy Nexus, Google’s new flagship Android smartphone and the first handset to ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Motorola and HTC both had their time in the spotlight, but it seems it’s now Samsung’s time to shine.
While that’s well and nice, Samsung’s dark side has been keeping Apple within its crosshairs. Both companies have been duking it out over legal issues for a while now, and the fighting has gotten especially heated over the past few months. Samsung has been for the most part, losing, but representatives have remained very confident. But with Apple’s announcement that it sold 4 million iPhone 4S units in a single three-day weekend, it looks like Samsung will have to win an uphill battle in order to continue reigning as champion of smartphone shipments.