Samsung Electronics Co said yesterday that global sales of its flagship Galaxy S III smartphone had topped 30 million units since its debut in May.
“The Galaxy S III continues to be a runaway favorite with customers around the world,” JK Shin, head of Samsung’s IT and mobile communications division, said in a statement.
The third version of the Galaxy S series offers a more powerful processor that lets users watch video and write e-mails simultaneously as well as a large 12.2cm screen.
Photo: Reuters
The company sold 56.3 million smartphones, including its flagship S III, in the July-to-September period, representing 31.3 percent of the global market, more than twice as much as bitter rival Apple’s share, research firm IDC said last month.
Samsung and US rival Apple have been embroiled in a long-running patent battle in 10 countries, including the US and Germany, with the pair accusing each other of stealing designs and technology.
Although the South Korean firm has gobbled up market share, Apple still leads its rival in terms of overall profitability in the smartphone sector.
Underscoring its commitment to variety, Samsung announced on Friday that global sales of its scaled-up smartphone, the Galaxy Note II, had topped 3 million since its debut in late September.
The main issue for Samsung, according to analysts, is how it handles its future relations with Google, given its dependency on the Android platform.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
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