The smartphone and overall device war between Apple and Samsung wages on. Samsung just release a report stating that the company has now surpassed Apple third quarter revenue-wise. If you read tech blogs of the tech portion of any newspaper this morning, it will be difficult to miss the Samsung vs. Apple headlines. Yet, Samsung’s numbers might not be all they’re cracked up to be.

Transparency was never Samsung’s strongest quality. The company hasn’t actually released any real data to press, though it is quick to claim that Apple is now far behind Samsung as far as revenues go. Where are the numbers? Buried underneath a pile of lawsuits and patents, one can presume. Regardless, it is feasible to believe that more people buy Samsung phones than Apple phones. In fact, it would be a near impossibility if Samsung didn’t sell more phones than Apple.

The Truth Behind the Numbers

The fact of the matter is that Samsung comes out with a few new phones each year. Apple, on the other hand, does not. When rumors of a new Apple phone do surface, consumer excitement builds for many months before the first new phone shows its shiny face. Sure, this is all part of Apple’s brilliant advertising campaign, but it’s also because Apple never releases a phone that’s not ready to be released.

Samsung, on the other hand, seems to produce phones as rapidly as possible. Perhaps Samsung is more concerned about the numbers game than actually appeasing consumers who buy Samsung phones. After all, the Samsung phone return rate is on the high side as compared to Apple’s return rate. There’s another reason why Samsung can’t quite claim to be selling more devices than Apple – Apple hasn’t released its next quarter numbers yet, but the projections look darn good.

Up Apple’s Sleeve

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, has told press that the company expects to sell a large number of iPhone 4s devices and iPads in the next quarter. Apple has already sold four million iPhone 4S devices, and the phone was just released a few weeks ago. These sales have to count for something. While it’s easy for Samsung to release numbers based upon the sale of many new phones (including the Galaxy S II, which is responsible for most of these sales), Apple projects that its numbers will be astronomical in the next quarter – based largely upon two devices.

Clearly, Apple isn’t ready to take a backseat just yet. To be fair, let’s not forget Nokia. Nokia still sells the most phones volume-wise, and this isn’t something to be taken lightly. Still, the smartphone world currently belongs to Apple and Samsung with each company doing its best to outshine the other.

In this reviewer’s opinion, the main difference is that Apple’s numbers won’t need any shading or bending when Tim Cook is ready to release them. Samsung, on the other hand, does what this company does best: bends the lines ever-so-slightly, so that it appears in the best light possible.