Samsung expects to beat 2011 smartphone sales target as Galaxy S II continue to soar

Samsung may be trudging through muddy waters when it comes to its continued legal wranglings with Apple, but there's no slowing the Korean giant when it comes to handset sales.

Indeed, an executive at the firm has told journalists the company is "pinning high hopes" on "achieving sales higher than our previous plan" during 2011, owing in large part to the strength of the Galaxy S II.

Shipments of the handset topped 10 million units within 150 days of launch – impressively before the device had even rolled out in North America – with sales tracking north of its predecessor at the same stage.

As a result, Samsung has been proclaimed by most analytics specialists as the world's number 1 smartphone manufacturer, outpacing both Apple and Nokia during the most recent quarter.

Still, analysts expect iPhone 4S shipments to be more than 24 million during the handset's first three months.

[source: Reuters]