Samsung expects its mobile phone business to return to a double-digit operating margin in the third quarter, Dow Jones reports. Samsung also expects to sell about 25 million smartphones this year compared with a previous forecast of about 18 million, JK Shin, head of Samsung's mobile communications division, told reporters at the consumer electronics show Ifa. Its second-quarter margin was weak partly due to foreign-exchange rates, Shin said. The company reported an operating margin of 7.2 percent in the three months to June, down from 10.8 percent a year earlier. Shin said that Samsung is aiming for a double-digit market share for global smartphones by the end of this year. This will be driven by the Galaxy S, which the executive expects could sell 10 million units globally this year. Shin said he expects that global mobile handsets market in 2010 will be about 1.2 billion units, of which about 280 million will be smartphones. Samsung expects the global mobile handsets market to grow by about 10 percent to more than 1.3 billion units in 2011, of which close to 400 million will be smartphones.
