Unlocked iPhone 5 Price Leaked as Galaxy S3 is No. 1

Strategy Analytics last week announced that Samsung's Galaxy S3 is the world's No. 1 selling smartphone as of last quarter. The Galaxy S3 knocked Apple's 4S to take the top spot.

Neil Shah, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, Samsung's Galaxy S3 smartphone model shipped 18.0 million units worldwide during the third quarter of 2012.

"The Galaxy S3 captured an impressive 11 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally and it has become the world's best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever," Shah said. "A large touchscreen design, extensive distribution across dozens of countries, and generous operator subsidies have been among the main causes of the Galaxy S3's success. Apple shipped an estimated 16.2 million iPhone 4S units worldwide for second place, as consumers temporarily held off purchases in anticipation of a widely expected iPhone 5 upgrade at the end of the quarter."

The company said the Galaxy S3 is popular with consumers across North America, Europe and Asia and noted that the phone's position at No. 1 might be "short-lived" since Apple's iPhone 5 has shipped about 6 million units during the third quarter. They say they expect "the new iPhone 5 to out-ship Samsung's Galaxy S3 in the coming fourth quarter of 2012."

Apple has released its newest iPhone 5 factory unlocked to several other countries except the United States. Now, the U.S. Apple Store could be suggesting that the unlocked iPhone 5 could be headed this direction.

The possibility that the unlocked iPhone 5 was first reported by AppleInsider.

"The units are priced at $649 for the 16GB version, $749 for the 32GB model, and $849 for the 64GB iteration," an AppleInsider reporter wrote. "While not present in the screenshot, all prices for both GSM and CDMA models can be found by adding the storage size to the search. For example, the price of unlocked 32GB GSM and CDMA iPhone 5s are found by searching for "iPhone 5 factory unlocked 32GB."

Our North American neighbors in Canada have the official unlocked iPhone 5 released to them, but Americans are still left wondering when Apple will release the device for purchase with no contract commitment.

But, if you're growing impatient waiting for the release, for a couple hundred bucks, you may be able to get your hands on an unlocked version of Apple's latest device.

Amazon has five featured merchants selling new unlocked iPhone 5s for as much as $1,200. The phones ship within two days from California.