Samsung expected to hit record sales in Q1 2013

Samsung has sold a lot of phones lately, including over 50 million Galaxy S III devices since its launch early last year. However, the company isn't seeing a slowdown any time soon. It's expected that Samsung's Q1 2013 sales will hit record numbers yet again, even though demand hasn't been as high as the company would like.

According to Hong Kong-based research company Counterpoint Research, Samsung has sold around 25 million smartphones each month so far this year, and that's expected to drive the company's quarterly sales to over 70 million units for Q1 2013. Samsung's last earnings report showed a profit of $8 billion over those three months.

Samsung's market share during January and February reached 35%, making them the largest smartphone manufacturer on the planet. Compared to Q4 2012, that's a 3% increase in market share. With the upcoming release of Samsung's GALAXY S 4, it's possible that the company may even see a record Q2 2013 as well.

Back in January, it was estimated that Samsung would sell around 10 million GALAXY S 4 devices per month, and the company says that they want to sell at least 350 million smartphones in 2013, which is quite an ambitious goal. They eventually want to reach 500 million devices total for the year. The GALAXY S 4 is expected to early May at some point, with T-Mobile the only major carrier to offer a timeline.