Samsung Outsells iPhone

E

veryone is iPhone crazy...quite literally, almost everyone—and that may be the reason behind why Samsung has pulled ahead in sales this quarter, shipping nearly twice as many smartphones as Apple did during the second quarter.

According to the research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped 50.5 million phones, the largest number of shipments ever made by a smartphone manufacturer in one quarter. Apple only shipped about 26 million during the same time period.

"We believe that Apple's lackluster performance was driven by some Apple fans and operators holding off iPhone purchases in anticipation of a rumored new iPhone 5 model." -- Neil Shah, Strategy Analytics analyst.

It was a banner quarter for Samsung, reporting a record $5.86 billion profit, up 79 percent from the same period last year, mostly thanks to Galaxy S smartphone sales.

Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Shah said in a statement, "Samsung has been able to deliver hit models in most major price segments, from the high-end Galaxy Note to the mass-market Galaxy Y. We believe that Apple's lackluster performance was driven by some Apple fans and operators holding off iPhone purchases in anticipation of a rumored new iPhone 5 model around September or October this year."

In other words, could Samsung's reign on top be shortlived? Probably.

"Volumes have polarized around those two brands," Shah said, noting that the growth of Samsung and Apple has replaced the growth of once-giant Nokia, whose global smartphone marketplace is just seven percent.

"This is Nokia's lowest marketshare level in the smartphone category for a decade," he said.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens after the iPhone 5 is released, but if we had to hedge our bets, we'd guess that Apple will knock Samsung way out of the park after that.