10 million Galaxy S phones sold

(WIRED) -- Selling 10 million units of any product in its first six months of initial release is nothing to scoff at. In the world of smartphones, it's certainly a number to notice.

That's why our eyebrows perked up when we read Samsung's e-mail this morning, announcing that the company's Android-based Galaxy S model has sold more than 10 million units worldwide since its debut in late June.

It's an admirable number, although not quite in the same league as Apple, which sold 14.1 million iPhone 4 phones during the third quarter of 2010.

And it definitely gives RIM reason to worry: RIM sold 12.1 million phones in the third quarter, down 2.8% from the previous quarter, according to Comscore data released in November.

The battle for operating system share has been heated between the big three contenders: Apple's iOS, Android and RIM's Blackberry OS. But Android has seen a surge in attention in 2010.

More than 40% of U.S. customers purchasing smartphones over the last six months have chosen Android-based phones, according to a recent report released by Nielsen, beating out the percentage of people who chose Apple, which rests at 26.9%.

But in the same Nielsen data, Apple shows its slight (if dwindling) edge in the overall number of phones out there. Apple's iOS has an overall U.S. market share of 28.6%, edging out Android, which rests at 26.1%. RIM's Blackberry OS comes in only slightly behind Android at 25.8%.

There's been a steady upward trajectory of Android-based phone sales over the past two years. Motorola's Droid sold an estimated 100,000 units over the weekend of its release in late 2009. It took the Droid 74 days to reach the 1 million mark, according to research firm Flurry Analytics.

But it took Samsung a month less to reach the same point with the Galaxy S. The company said it had sold 1 million in the first 45 days since launch.