Samsung's smartphone sales surpass Apple's

Samsung has surpassed Apple Inc. to become the leading seller of smartphones in the July-to-September period.

The Korean electronics giant shipped around 28 million smartphones, about four times the number it achieved the previous year, whereas Apple said earlier this month that it shipped around 17 million smartphones in the same period and Nokia sold 16.8 million smartphones.

In a rapid transformation of its biggest business by sales, Samsung in this period also closed in on Nokia Corp. as the world's largest seller of all cellphones.

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung's share of the smartphone market rose to 23.8% during the quarter from 9.3%, while Apple's market share fell to 14.6% from 17.4%. Nokia Corp. saw its share fall sharply from 32.7% to 14.4%.

The consultancy also said that Apple's growth was hindered by customers waiting for the launch of the new iPhone 4S.

The report came immediately after the release of Samsung's third-quarter results, which showed the profits falling 23% as strong growth in its mobile phone business was overshadowed by a poor performance in the memory chip arm.

Handset profits more than doubled to 2.52tn won ($2.3bn; £1.4bn) on strong sales from its Galaxy smartphones.

Samgsung executives expect the fourth quarter to remain solid as the demand for smartphones will remain high and sales for other consumer electronics products will enter their peak season.