It was just a month ago that a market survey revealed that Samsung surpassed Nokia in cellphone sales and Apple in smartphone sales last year. Now, the South-Korean electronic major says it has sold more than 100 million units of its Galaxy S smartphones globally.

The 100 million mark, a clear milestone in smartphone sales, has been achieved over nearly three years, since its launch in May 2010 to Jan. 13, 2013. According to the Samsung press release, the first device in the series, Galaxy S, has reached over 24 million global channel shipments. More than 10 million of these were sold during the first seven months after its launch in June 2010.

Banking on its success, Samsung released its successor, GALAXY S II, in April 2011, which saw nearly 10 million units sold in just five months and the huge demand has resulted in an overall shipment of 40 million so far. The latest one in the series, Galaxy S III, was launched in May 2012. The flagship product became the fastest selling Samsung smartphone as it reached 20 million global channel sales in just 100 days.  As of now, more than 40 million Galaxy S III units have been sold globally.

There has been an endless flow of rumors on the possible release date of the next version, unofficially dubbed the Galaxy S4, following the huge success of the series. It was highly speculated that Samsung would unveil Galaxy S4 at the just-concluded Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas; however, the company officials refused to confirm anything.

According to a report in The Korea Times, Samsung aims to ship a record 510 million handsets in 2013. However, while this seems to be an optimistic goal, research firm Gartner predicted that the company will ship closer to 300 smartphone units this year.