Samsung said Monday it sold more than 5 million Galaxy Note II devices within just two months, solidifying its dominance in the worldwide smartphone market and paving its way toward another record-setting quarter.
Launched in September, the Galaxy Note II touts the same half-tablet, half-smartphone design as its predecessor, the Galaxy Note, which took nearly five months to reach this same 5 million milestone, Samsung said.
The device, which is a competitor to both Apple's iPad and iPhone, runs the latest version of Google's Android Jelly Bean OS and comes with Samsung's S Pen stylus for digital note-taking and sketching. It has a 5.5-inch display, making it larger than Samsung's popular Galaxy S III smartphone but smaller than its Galaxy Tab tablets.
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The Galaxy Note II is also thinner and lighter than the first Galaxy Note, measuring 0.37 inches thick and weighing less than a half-pound. It also delivers a boost in performance compared to its older sibling with a faster 1.6GHz processor.
The success of the Galaxy Note II underscores Samsung's dominance in the global smartphone market, where it's been extending its lead over runner-up and archrival Apple. According to Gartner, Samsung sold 55 million smartphones during the third quarter -- up from the 45.6 million it sold during the second quarter -- while Apple, comparatively, sold 23.6 million iPhones.
Still, Gartner projected that Apple could grow this number over the next few months, as sales of its new iPhone 5 take off during the holiday season.
Apple and Samsung, meanwhile, are still waging a cutthroat legal battle, with the two companies returning to U.S. district court in 2014 to argue a new round of patent infringement claims. The trial, which will target more recent Apple and Samsung mobile devices, including Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S III smartphone, will be the second U.S. case for the two rivals. In August, a California jury ruled Samsung had copied a number of Apple's designs, a charge that ran the Korean tech giant $1.05 billion in damages.
PUBLISHED NOV. 26, 2012
