Samsung reportedly beats Apple in smartphone shipments

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Samsung shipped more smartphones than Apple in the last quarter ending September 30. According to a person "familiar with the situation," Samsung shipped 20 million smartphones where as Apple shipped sold 17.1 million in its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended September 24, as announced in Apple's last conference earnings call. [Noting that shipping units doesn't mean selling them. Samsung may have shipped 20 million smartphones, but Apple sold nearly that many. - Ed.]

As noted in Apple's last conference earnings call, sales of the iPhone slowed down in the second half of the last quarter (as predicted) due to speculation and rumor of a product refresh: namely, the iPhone 4S (check out TUAW's Chris Rawson post taking a closer look at this). However, with the iPhone 4S selling a hefty 4 million units within the first three days of its launch, things could look a bit different at the end of the next financial quarter!