If Apple did not know before, then they know now that they definitely have a battle on their hands with the Samsung Galaxy S 2, as figures show the Galaxy S 2 had significantly more pre-order sales globally than that of the iPhone 4.

The Galaxy S 2 smartphone is the latest version of Samsung’s highly successful Galaxy S model and with pre-orders for the device reaching 3 million globally it is set to become one of the most sought-after handsets this year. This figure is considerably higher than the number of pre-orders (600,000) that were taken in the week leading up to the launch of the Apple iPhone 4. Apple sold 1.7 million of their 4th-generation smartphones over the first weekend on sale.

I recently did an article on the Samsung Galaxy S 2 receiving 200,000 pre-orders in Korea, compared to 110,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4 in the USA. Please note that the Galaxy S 2 was offered across three of Korea’s carriers, whilst the iPhone only had one carrier at the time — see article here.

The iPhone 4 has a smaller screen that that of its rival Galaxy S 2, with its 4.3-in screen that includes Super AMOLED Plus technology. The Galaxy S 2 is Samsung’s first dual core smartphone with a 1.2GHz processor, it has the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, and comes with an 8MP rear facing camera.

According to the pre-order sales figures, this phone is bound to be big hit for Samsung and should help in their bid to increase the company’s share of the ever-growing smartphone market. According to an article by Chris Martin of The Inquirer, recent statistics on the growth of the smartphone market show that Samsung have increased their share of the market from the 4.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 to 10.8 per cent in the first quarter of this year – so could there be a take over?

Are you one of the 3 million people that pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy S 2? Please let us know what you like about the handset.