Galaxy II creator about to give rivals the run around, analysts suggest.
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Sales of its smartphones, which includes the much adored 1.2Ghz Galaxy S II smartphone, could hit 18-21 million during the most recent quarter, analyst Neil Mawston, from Strategy Analytics believes.
The figures, if realised, means Samsung will pip arch smartphone rivals including iPhone, BlackBerry and previous number one Nokia to the post, as top phone maker in the world.
And, it would confirm its status as the top Google Android carrier, toppling Sensation rival HTC and LG.
Another important point also to note is the new Galaxy S II has yet to be released in the United States (it was released in Oz in May), which is sure to catapult the handset further towards stratospheric sales.
Last week, Samsung said it would be released there in August, although were coy about the precise date.
However, “Samsung stands a reasonable chance of capturing the top spot on a quarterly basis if it can continue expanding its Android portfolio across high-growth markets like China and Brazil, ” says Mawston.
Last week, Apple released figures for Q2, revealing record breaking 20.34 million sales of of its cult iPhone – 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
“Samsung and Apple will be at similar levels in smartphones by the end of the year,” he believes.
However, the release of iPhone 5, expected to hit in September could slow Samsung’s success.
Finnish brand Nokia, predicted to record 16.7 million handsets sales for the same period, has been playing catch up to its high end rivals, and is now hoping its recent $1 billion deal with Microsoft will give it the edge in future.
Korean maker Samsung is also looking to oar in on Nokia’s low end phone market, and plans to release a new Bada model later this year, its head of Samsung’s mobiles, J.K. Shin said last week.
The giant could hold 20 per cent of this market by the end of the year, compared to Nokia’s 26% share, the analyst suggests.
And he could be right. On a recent trip to Europe, I noticed Samsung had the cheapest low end phone on the market in at least one country, out-pricing the much loved Euro brand Nokia.
Samsung are due to release earnings results for its most recent quarter later this week July 29.
Samsung previously said that sales target for mobiles this year is 300 million handsets, 60m of which is said to to be smartphones and is believed to have sold 3 million Galaxy S II to date – which was also the fastest selling device in history in its native S Korea.
Read Is The Galaxy SII The Best Ever Android Phone? Review Here
