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Selling 10 million units of any product in its first 6 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 email this morning, announcing that the company’s Android-based Galaxy S model has sold over 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 percent 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. Over 40 percent of customers purchasing smartphones over the last 6 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 percent.

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

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.

See Also:

• Samsung Sells Five Million Galaxy S Phones
• Samsung Ships One Million Galaxy S Phones in 45 Days
• Galaxy S

Photo: aaronage/Flickr

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Samsung’s Galaxy S Android phone is officially a runaway success. It has sold five million units since its launch at the end of June, just over three months ago, proving that a single Android phone is capable of iPhone-like sales figures. The Galaxy S joins Motorola’s Droid as one of the fastest-selling Android handsets.

The Galaxy S, soon to be joined by the Galaxy Tab tablet, has a huge four-inch AMOLED screen, a 5MP camera and the ability to quickly drain the battery and bring the browser to its knees by running Adobe’s Flash plugin.

The numbers break down like this: Of five million units, two million were sold in the US, one million in Samsung’s home country Korea and the rest in other world markets, including China, where the handset went on sale in September. The announcement was made by Samsung at another launch event in Tokyo, Japan, where the Galaxy S will go on sale in late November, running Android 2.2 Froyo.

Samsung unleashes a GALAXY of opportunities in Japan [Korea Newswire via ]

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Samsung’s bet on Android seems to have paid off big for the company. Samsung has shipped more than one million Galaxy S phones in the U.S. since the devices were launched in mid-July.

The news makes the Galaxy S devices one of the hottest Android phones available today, though the smartphones haven’t reached iPhone-like popularity yet. Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 devices in just the first three days of sales in June.

So far, Samsung has two models of the Galaxy S phones, Samsung Vibrant and SamsungCapitvate, available on T-Mobile and AT&T respectively. But two more Galaxy S devices are expected to debut soon–Samsung Epic 4G on Sprint and Samsung Fascinate on Verizon Wireless.

Common to all these devices are features such as AMOLED display, a 1GHz processor called ‘Hummingbird’ and entertainment apps. Samsung says all Galaxy S devices will be upgraded to Android 2.2 Froyo operating system.

It will be interesting to see if the Galaxy S phones can topple Motorola Droid and the HTC Evo as the best-selling Android phones.Motorola recently launched Droid 2 on Verizon Wireless and the Evo has reigned on Sprint as the first 4G phone.

Samsung’s Epic 4G, which is scheduled to be available on Sprint starting August 31, could finally give the Evo some real competition.

Meanwhile, Samsung is gearing up to launch a 7-inch tablet in September called the ‘Galaxy Tab’. The tablet will run Android 2.2 Froyo OS, include video-calling capability and full web browsingwhich likely means support for Flash, according to a teaser video that Samsung posted last week.

Photo: Samsung Vibrant (Stefan Armijo/Wired.com)

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Samsung’s latest phone, the Vibrant, has the body of an iPhone and the brains of an Android.

The Vibrant’s industrial design is shockingly similar to the iPhone 3G: The rounded curves at the corners, the candybar shape, the glossy, black finish and the chrome-colored metallic border around the display. The Vibrant even has its volume and ringer buttons in almost the same spot as the iPhone 3G.

But if you are willing to get past the derivative design, the Vibrant has some sweet tech specs. The Vibrant is part of Samsung’s new portfolio of Android devices collectively called ‘Galaxy S.’

The Vibrant has a 4-inch AMOLED screen that’s bright and vivid and the 1-GHz Hummingbird processor makes the device pretty zippy. There’s GPS, Wi-Fi and a 5-megapixel camera. Overall, the phone (weighing 4.16 ounces) feels remarkably light. By comparison, the iPhone 3G weighs around 4.7 ounces.

There’s one disturbing thing about the phone. The device comes packed with apps you probably don’t need: MobiTV, GoGo Inflight internet and Electronic Arts’ The Sims 3 game. Sure, you can always delete these apps if you don’t use them, but why bundle them into the phone instead of giving users the option to download the apps if they want them? We’d hate to see bloatware start to overwhelm brand-new phones with junk the way it does with most new PCs.

The Vibrant runs version 2.1 of the Android operating system. That means access to all the standard Google apps such as maps, YouTube and e-mail. Setup, as with most Android phones, is easy — just enter your Google e-mail address and the device unlocks access to your Google account and to the Android Market.

Samsung’s skin for the Android is clean and easy to use. But the square icons are, again, very similar in their looks to the iPhone 3G’s.

Samsung has created a Social Hub widget for the device that integrates Facebook, Twitter and MySpace feeds into a single window. That has its limitations, though. For instance, it’s easy to reply and retweet messages, but you can’t see @replies or direct messages from Twitter through the widget.

Samsung’s Vibrant will cost $200 (with a two-year contract) on T-Mobile when it comes out July 21. But there’s little to make the phone notable, apart from its striking similarity to the iPhone. Without that, the Vibrant is then just another Android phone, albeit one with a pretty good screen and surprisingly light weight.

Check out the photo of the Samsung Vibrant next to the iPhone 3G below.

Photos: Stefan Armijo/Wired.com

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