Samsung Galaxy S II hits 3 million pre-orders

KOREAN HARDWARE GIANT Samsung has had 3 million pre-orders for its Galaxy S II smartphone by the end of April.

The handset is the successor to Samsung's successful Galaxy S model and with pre-orders of 3 million globally it is set to become one of the most in demand smartphones this year. This is significantly higher than the number of pre-orders that Apple took in the week leading up to the launch of its Iphone 4, which totalled 600,000. Apple's latest smartphone sold 1.7 million over its first weekend on sale.

Samsung's rival to the Iphone boasts a larger 4.3-in screen with Super AMOLED Plus technology. It is Samsung's first dual core handsetwith a 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. It also has the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and an 8MP rear facing camera.

The phone is bound to be a hit and should help Samsung in its bid to increase its share of the growing smartphone market. Recent statistics on the growth of this market showed that Samsung had increased its market share from 4.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 to 10.8 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

We could see Samsung overtake RIM, which saw a 5.1 per cent drop in its market share over the same period. RIM hopes to maintain its third place spot with the announcement of its latest Blackberry Bold smartphones. µ