Samsung Galaxy S4 notches up sales of 10 million units in a month of launch

In less than a month of its global launch Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 had notched up sales of over 10 million units, outstripping its predecessors in  first-month sales.

The Galaxy S III hit the 10-million mark in 50 days following its launch in 2012, while the Galaxy SII took five months and the Galaxy S seven months to reach the figure.

The device is now available in 110 countries and would be rolled out gradually to a total of 155 countries in tandem with its partners, Samsung said today.

The Galaxy S4 came with a 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display with 441 pixels per inch, and a dual-camera function that made for simultaneous use of both front and rear cameras, in addition to software such as Air View and  Air Gesture that aimed to simplify interaction with the phone including through hand gestures.

Samsung also plans to introduce more colour variations of the device, and in addition to the currently available White Mist and Black Forest, new color iterations would be added this summer, including Blue Arctic and Red Aurora, followed by Purple Mirage and Brown Autumn.

According to research firm Gartner, the South Korean vendor had a 30.8 per cent share of the smartphone market in the first quarter against Apple's 18.2 per cent.

Meanwhile iPhone veteran John Martellaro said on macobserver.com that what he had learned from the evaluation of  different Android devices, like the Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus,was that the Android 4.x OS was a technical, pleasantly geeky, often beautiful OS that would appeal to many different people, and on the 5.5-inch display of the Samsung Galaxy Note II (GN2), it looked great.

He wrote though a lot had been said about the Android and iOS competition, there was a difference in philosophies between Apple and Google when it came to the relationship to the customer. There were nuances of system security and fragmentation and the policies of the companies when it came to relationship to the developer. There were legal issues related to IP, infringement and patents and these would be settled in the courts, but he was not interested in discussing those issues.
 
He adds that the thing that stood out to him was that Android 4.x or later had no problem with divulging a lot of information about the device, and on the GN2, if the user wanted to see which apps were burning up their battery or data usage, it was available to them as a list.

He also said that the overall technical approach of Android was something that many people appreciated, which was perhaps why some people liked to bash iOS. He writes it was an age-old battle: the tinkerer versus the doer and the world had room for both those kinds of people.