Like it or not, Samsung is the world’s largest Android smartphone vendor. It wasn’t the first company to release an Android handset, though. That was HTC - back in 2008 - with the T-Mobile G1 / HTC Dream.

Samsung’s first commercial Android device was launched a bit later, in June 2009. Simply called Samsung Galaxy (model number i7500), the handset didn’t manage to impress. It offered a 3.2-inch HVGA display, Android 1.5 Cupcake, 128MB of RAM, and a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7200A processor. Although unimpressive, this original Galaxy, pictured above, was the start of an epic journey for Samsung.

Epic is a good word to describe the journey, because we just realized that the South Korean company released over 100 Android smartphones around the world since 2009 (not including slightly different variations of the same model). We counted 114 Samsung Android handsets - though results may vary, depending on what you consider to be a variation of the same phone.

Of course, it’s not just the sheer number of products that helped Samsung rule the global smartphone market. The company had - and continues to have - a lot of high-end hot sellers, starting with the Galaxy S i9000 that was introduced in the first half of 2010, and finishing with the new Galaxy S5 (which already broke Samsung’s previous record when it comes to shipments).

android smartphone market is a mess. 100 new models every weeks, most of them rubbish. it's confusing for the potential buyers.

Sometimes it makes the customer confused to choose which model.