Samsung Claims 10 Million Galaxy S Phones Sold

among the vanguard manufacturers backing Google's white-hot Android platform

According to Samsung, 4 million Galaxy S units have been sold in North America, with 2.5 million sold in Europe and 2 million sold in Asia.

"The Galaxy S is the result of our 22-year heritage in the mobile industry," said J.K. Shin, president and head of the mobile communications business at Samsung Electronics, in a statement. "It is the realization of our concept of 'the Smart Life' -- we wanted to make users' lives more convenient, more exciting and more integrated. Today's milestone shows that we have succeeded: 10 million Galaxy S users around the world are living the Smart Life."

Shin added that Samsung is selling more than 1.4 million Galaxy S devices per month.

Galaxy S was first introduced by Samsung at CTIA Las Vegas in March 2010, and strong word-of-mouth, solid reviews and customer embrace of Android devices propelled it to a spot among the coolest smartphones of 2010.

Galaxy S was released on all four of the major U.S. carriers last year, under different names, such as Sprint's Epic 4G and Verizon's Fascinate. Though each version has slightly different features, each includes a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and a 1 Ghz processor, 5-megapixel camera, 2 GB of storage and support for Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Samsung's strength with the Android platform should come into sharper focus in 2011, as its Samsung Galaxy Tab -- an Android-based rival to Apple's mighty iPad -- looks to gain traction among tablet customers. Samsung has not released initial sales figures for the Galaxy Tab, which launched in November.