By Lee Youkyung
BERLIN, Sept. 3 — Samsung Electronics Co. is expecting to sell 25 million smartphones this year, about 40 percent more than its earlier goal, as demand for its premium models is high, a company executive said Friday.
The company estimated earlier that it would triple its smartphone sales in 2010 from 5.9 million last year.
"The Galaxy S is highly likely to top 10 million in sales within this year, in six months of its release," Shin Jong-kyun, president of Samsung's mobile business, told reporters at an IFA trade show in Berlin.
Since its launch in June, sales of the Android-running, 4-inch wide Galaxy S surpassed 3 million globally as of August.
Shin predicted that the global smartphone market will expand well above the market estimate of about 240 million this year and could reach as many as 280 million units.
The company said earlier that it eyes at least a 10 percent share in the fast-growing smartphone sector, which could enable Samsung's sales to reach a much higher level.
Shin was also upbeat about Samsung's phone business next year, saying that it expects to double its annual smartphone sales in 2012 to about 50 million. The goal will represent an estimated 12.5 percent of the global smartphone market next year, which he forecasts will reach 400 million units.
The company's flagship Galaxy S represents its ambitious attempt to challenge Apple Inc.'s iPhone as the world's second-largest mobile phone maker struggled to reverse its image as an also-ran in the high-margin smartphone market.
Samsung plans to reveal a new smartphone model in February during the mobile industry show in Spain, according to Lee Young-hee, head of marketing at Samsung's mobile division.
On the eve of the IFA trade show that kicked off on Friday, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Tab, its first tablet PC running on the Android system and a three-times-larger sister of the Galaxy S. Shin said the company estimates it can sell at least 1 million units of the Galaxy Tab by the end of this year.
Driven by the strong sales of its premium models, Samsung will regain the two-digit operating profit margin in the current quarter, compared with the 7.2 margin in the second quarter, Shin added.
Bullish sales of the company's high-end models, the Galaxy S and the Wave, which runs on Samsung's proprietary bada system, are driving up the average selling price of its mobile phones, Lee said.
Since the Wave phone's launch in February, Samsung has sold 987,000 units in Europe as of the end of August, despite a shortage in the display screen panel used in the phone called Super AMOLED.
The follow-up model, the Wave 2, is poised to be unveiled this month, and the first major upgrade of its bada software is also in the pipeline, according to Samsung's top executives. (PNA/Yonhap)
LOR/ebp