Samsung predicts record-breaking Galaxy S3 sales, despite supply problems

Samsung expects sales of its new Galaxy S III, launched at the end of last month as a main rival to Apple's iPhone, to top 10 million during July, making it the firm's fastest selling smartphone. 

 

Samsung also predicted its second quarter earnings will beat its results for the first three months of 2012, countering market concerns that tight supplies of the new Galaxy model and the weak global economy would hit the South Korean giant's bottom line.

Samsung kicked off global sales of its Galaxy SIII on May 29, but shipments have been affected by the tight supply of parts such as the handset casing for the pebble-blue model.

In the United States, where sales were launched last Thursday, major carriers including Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and AT&T have not been able to offer the Galaxy SIII with 32 gigabytes of memory, partly due to tight supply.

"We're getting far better reviews on S III than we did with its predecessors globally ... and supply simply can't meet soaring demand," said JK Shin, head of Samsung's mobile division.

"We've sent executives and staff to almost all our (component) suppliers to ensure a smooth offering and hopefully things will get better from next week."

Samsung launched its first Galaxy model two years ago in a rush to counter Apple's iPhone success. Then, Samsung's smartphone market share was below 10 percent. It has since overtaken Apple, and the company said in late April that new Galaxy smartphones would "substantially contribute" to second-quarter results.
Samsung sold 44.5 million smartphones in January-March - equal to nearly 21,000 every hour - giving it 30.6 percent market share. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones, taking 24.1 percent market share.
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