During the first quarter of 2012 Samsung Electronics became the world’s leading seller of smartphones with sales of 41 million to Apple’s 32.6 million, according to Forbes magazine Monday quoting a report by the investment banker Canaccord Genuity.

Those numbers give Samsung 28.2% of the global market and Apple a 22.4% share. They are followed by Nokia with 8.6% and Research-in-Motion (RIM) with 7.6%. In fifth place was newcomer Huawei of China with 5.8%.

During the 4th quarter of 2011 Apple had nudged ahead with a 23.6% share to Samsung’s 23.2% on the strength of its iPhone 4S. Samsung’s big gains since then was powered partly by the popularity of the Galaxy Note, which sold 5 million units since its release last November. Samsung’s market-share gains have been mostly at the expense of Nokia and RIM which had enjoyed shares of 12.5% and 8.5%, respectively.

“Samsung’s broad range of [stock keeping units] and price points has resulted in share gains within the growing pre-paid smartphone market” in Europe and Asia, reports Forbes.

In part due to its smartphone success Samsung is expected to post record quarterly revenues and an operating profit of over W5 trillion ($4.5 bil.), with over W3.7 trillion ($3.3 bil.) in the information and communication technology sector alone.