The head of Samsung’s mobile business division, Shin Jong-kyun says that he aims to triple its smartphone sales this year to around 60 million units, compared to the 10 million last year. He told The Korea Times that the company is banking on the popularity of its Galaxy series of Android handsets, and will be launching more touchscreen tablets as well.

The company also markets handsets that run on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and its own operating system, Bada, and its total smartphone sales for 2010 are around 20 million, Shin added.

“I think we did better than our previous goal of selling 270 million mobile phones in 2010. The 20 million smartphones sold gives us a foundation to build on in the premium segment too,” Shin told Korean journalists at the sidelines of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week.

“Our plan for this year is to sell 60 million smartphones and cement ourselves as a global top-tier brand in this segment. It will be important for us to establish stronger positions in regions such as Southeast Asia, China, and Central and South America instead of just relying on advanced markets.”

Shin also confirmed that Samsung will unveil a new version of the company’s 10-million selling Galaxy S at the World Mobile Congress. The handset will be powered by a dual-core processor and feature a super-AMOLED display with enhanced density, and run on Android 2.3 OS, the Gingerbread release.

Shin expected the global mobile-phone market to increase by 10 percent this year, with the smartphone segment growing by 30 to 40 percent.

On the web: The Korea Times