Samsung's Galaxy S3 - the world's leading smartphone

Samsung's Galaxy S3 has outsold Apple's iPhone 4S for the first time, becoming the world's best-selling smartphone.

Samsung sold 18 million models, compared with Apple's 16.2 million sales, in the third quarter of  2012.

However, Apple's new iPhone 5 is widely expected to reclaim the top sales spot.

Strong Galaxy smartphone sales helped Samsung report record profits in the three months to September.

Net profit was US$6.5 trillion won up 91 per cent from a year earlier.

But analysts say that one reason Samsung's phone was able to wrest the top sales spot from Apple's iPhone 4 was because many customers were waiting for the iPhone 5, which was launched during the third quarter.