By Min-Jeong Lee

Samsung Electronics Co. can likely keep its smartphone crown, at least for now.

The South Korean tech giant reported another jump to new records in sales and operating profit Friday, thanks in large part to the continued popularity of its high-end Galaxy smartphones.

More importantly for the scorekeepers in the ongoing tussle between Samsung and Apple Inc., the Galaxy smartphones appear to be holding up even as Apple reported a 22% decline in net profit from a year earlier.

Of course, because Samsung keeps the number of smartphone shipments under wraps, it's impossible to compare the two companies' phone sales on a one-to-one basis. Analysts estimate Samsung to have shipped approximately 75 million smartphones in the three months ended June (including 20 million or more of its sparkly new Galaxy S4s), compared to an estimated 69.4 million in total smartphone sales in the first quarter, according to Strategy Analytics.

Meanwhile, Apple reported better-than-expected sales of 31.2 million iPhones in its most recent quarter, up from the 26 million iPhones it sold in the same period last year.

So Apple may not be losing ground as quickly as Samsung would hope.

The horse race between the two smartphone makers may also be missing the larger picture, which suggests that both companies could be in for a rough time as cheaper alternatives to their higher-end offerings gain traction.

Apple saw its average price per phone fall to about US$581, down $32 sequentially from the period ended in March. Samsung, meanwhile, is spending mightily on marketing to keep demand for its phones up. But it, too, has likely seen the average price for its higher-end Galaxy phones slip as well, according to analysts' estimates.

These concerns have put pressure on shares of both companies' stocks in recent weeks.

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