Samsung Electronics will post better-than-expected financial results in the coming weeks, with profits boosted by 79 percent thanks to improved sales of its smartphones.

In a pre-earnings guidance, the South Korean electronics giant has forecast an operating profit of 6.7 trillion won (£3.8bn) for the three months to the end of June, which would represent its highest quarterly profit since June 2008.

This would represent a 79 percent increase over the same period last year, with Samsung predicting overall sales of 47tn won.

The main driver of these increased profits is seen as the launch of the Galaxy S3 smartphone, which went on sale in the UK in April but only launched in the US this week.

Last month, Samsung announced it predicted shipments of 10 million Galaxy S3 units by the end of July and with the iPhone 5 not set to launch unilt October, analysts predict that this success will continue, with that number rising to 19 million in Q3 2012, according to HMC Investment Securities.

"Earnings will be stronger in the current quarter as sales of the high-end Galaxy S III will increase dramatically and drive the telecom division's earnings to above 5tn won," Nho Geun-Chang an analyst with HMC Investment Securities told the BBC. "We estimate shipments of the Galaxy S III will reach 19 million units in the third quarter."

However analysts expects the profits to slip somewhat in the fourth quarter as Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5 sometime in September/October which will impact on sales of the Galaxy S3.

Another factor which could impact the sales of Samsung products is the on-going battle in courts around the world with Apple over patent infringement. Courts have already banned the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Apple is seeking to get the Galaxy S3 banned from sale in the US also.

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