By Randy Chen

(AXcess News) Hong Kong - Samsung Electronics is forecasting higher smartphone sales for the year and took a bullish stance on next year's smartphone sales demand, expecting a double up on the 25 million smartphone sales for this year.  The S. Korean mobile phone maker is ranked no. 2 in the world.

At a tradeshow in Berlin, Samsung's head of its mobile communications business unit told reporters that for the year, the company expected to sell 7 million more smartphones than previously forecast, an increase of 38.8%.

Mr. Shin credited the popularity of Samsong's Android-based Galaxy S model mobile device for the increase in sales.

Shin, while bullish on Samsung's smartphone sales for the year, was quick to shrink his estimated increase in sales to 20 million, though the Samsung spokesperson did not remove the possibility of its Galaxy S smartphone pushing those figures to the original 25 million sales level he'd indicated.