Samsung to ship over 60M smartphones in Q4

Samsung Electronics will likely ship over 60 milllion smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012 given the popularity of its Galaxy Note 2 and S3 devices.

The Yonhap News Agency, citing research findings from investment bank UBS, reported Wednesday that the South Korean electronics giant will sell 61.5 million units of smartphones in the October-December period. This is an increase of 5 percent from an estimated 58 million units in the previous quarter, it noted.

The shipment volume could go up to as high as 63 million depending on sell-through, or the amount of devices actually sold to consumers, it added.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 2, the smartphone-tablet hybrid released in September, will be a key contributor to the company's growth.

Nicolas Gaudois, an analyst at UBS, said in the report: "The Galaxy Note 2 has shipped 3 million units in its first five weeks of sales, with sell-through strong in Asia and Europe, and the U.S. gathering pace post-launch. We hence forecast 7 million Galaxy Note 2, compared to our initial expectation of 5 million for the fourth quarter."

The Galaxy S3 smartphone, which was launched in May, also continues to perform strongly with more than 5.5 million units sold in October alone. Gaudois said the bank is comfortable with its 15 million estimate for the quarter.

With its product successes, Samsung is expected to widen its lead over Apple in the smartphone arena in 2013. An earlier report by Korea Investment & Securities stated Samsung will expand its market share to 37 percent from 33.1 percent in 2012, while Apple will grow slightly to 20.4 percent from 19.9 percent in 2012.