Apple’s iPhone 5 sold five million units within its first weekend on the market last fall, and according to Strategy Analytics these sales numbers continued to soar through the end of 2012. New data from the analytics firm has crowned Apple’s latest handset as the world’s best-selling smartphone during Q4 2012—ousting Samsung’s Galaxy S3 from its top spot.
In fact, sales of Apple’s smartphone nearly doubled that of Samsung’s newest Galaxy S device. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company shipped an estimated 27.4 million units during the final quarter of last year, while Samsung pushed out 15.4 million units of its 2012 flagship during the same time period. Additionally, the previous generation iPhone 4S shipped an estimated 17.4 million units to bump the Galaxy S3 down to third place.
The S3, however, did account for seven percent of the smartphone market share, falling behind Apple by a large margin. Apple’s iPhone 5 comprised a whopping 12.6 percent of the worldwide smartphone market share and the iPhone 4S claimed 8 percent—reaching 20.6 percent of the market combined.
This marks the first time Apple’s iPhone 5 has surpassed Samsung’s Galaxy S3 in the global smartphone market since the sixth generation iPhone launched back in September.
“The iPhone 5 captured an impressive 13 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally and it has become the world’s best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever,” Neil Shah, senior analyst with the firm said in a statement.
It’s also worth noting that sales of both the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 accounted for 1 in 5 of all global smartphone shipments in Q4 2012. Apple’s success, however, could be short lived if Samsung introduces its highly rumored Galaxy S4 during the first half of 2013.
Earlier this week Russian analyst Eldar Murtazin tweeted that Samsung has a “big announcement” in store for March 14,alluding that the next flagship Galaxy S handset could be unveiled.
