While all has not been rosy for the Korean tech giant, the company managed to sell 19.2 million units in comparison to Nokia's 16.7 million units.
Apple still holds on to the top spot with 20.3 million iPhones shipped, making Samsung the second largest seller of smartphones in the world.
Previously the leading smartphone manufacturer in the world for over a decade, Nokia was recently usurped by Apple's iPhone which sold more than 20 million units in the 2nd quarter of 2011.
For the last couple of years, the Finnish cellular giant has been grappling with dwindling sales thanks to their dated Symbian OS and the transition to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform.
Many believe that Nokia will soon see a resurgence in its fortunes once it starts shipping Microsoft Windows based smartphones which could eventually lead to Windows Phone becoming the second most popular smartphone platform by 2015.