MUMBAI: After ruling 2012 with its successful sale of handsets, Samsung is now aiming to retain its position on the leaderboard in 2013 by shipping a total of 510 million mobiles, out of which 390mn are said to be smartphones.

While the Korean giant is widely expected to ship around 420mn phones this year with 288mn devices already sold in the first three quarters, it aims to beat its rival Apple by managing sales of 510mn, with 390mn for smartphones and 120mn for feature phones respectively. Thus, it is expected to sell around 20 per cent more devices in 2013 compared to 2012.

According to agency reports, the estimates contradict a forecast from Gartner, the leading market researcher that predicted 250-300mn smartphone sales for Samsung next year.

The mobile handset company has witnessed a huge jump from 600,000 smartphones sold in 2009 to an estimated 390mn in 2013. It is also on track to replace Nokia as the world’s biggest phone maker in 2012, after no less than 14 years in which Nokia reigned supreme on that front.

An analyst at Samsung Securities expects the company to post a USD 19.55bn profit for 2013, up from USD 17.68bn this year.

Reports state that Samsung will make 240mn of its phones next year in Vietnam, 170mn in China, 40mn in South Korea and 20mn in India. The company is expected to invest around USD 2.2bn in its Vietnamese facilities by 2020 to boost their output more. This will allow for savings on manufacturing and logistics costs, which apparently will be passed on to the company’s customers.

The Galaxy S4 is stated to be the most important smartphone in the company’s lineup for next year. The Galaxy S3 is currently the best sold Android device with over 30mn units sold.

LTE-capable Samsung devices are also said to get more affordable too. The company is also expected to release Windows 8 mobile and TIZEN smart devices next year, but Android will still stay ahead and play a major role in Samsung’s future.