Samsung has been reported to have achieved a milestone in the September quarter by beating Apple in terms of smartphone shipments.
An unnamed source told the Wall Street Journal that Samsung shipped over 20 million smartphones during the quarter.
This figure, if accurate, would compare with 17.1 million smartphone sales for Apple from its own mostly-overlapping September quarter.
Apple's iPhone sales for the period are widely believed to have been impacted by anticipation for the launch of the iPhone 4S, which sold over 4 million units in its opening weekend.
But Samsung's rapid smartphone strides have nevertheless been impressive, with the vendor having only overtaken Nokia as the number two smartphone maker a quarter earlier, according to Strategy Analytics, which pegs the company's smartphone sales for 2Q10 at just 3 million.
Nokia has reported a 38% decline in its own smartphone sales for the period to 16.8 million.
Some estimates put Samsung's sales for the quarter at as high as 30 million. The vendor earlier this month gave the even more ambitious target of overtaking Nokia as the world's top mobile phone maker by shipments, which it believes it can achieve by as early as the end of the year.