South Korean tech giant Samsung has high expectations for its latest flagship smartphones Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, which were launched on April 10. Already both the devices have received rave reviews and even their sales are high. Expecting high sales all through the year, Samsung hopes that the sales figures of the two smartphones will cross the 70 million mark by 2015's end.

According to IB Times, the enthusiasm over the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge has been strong since they hit the markets, as the devices drawing lines of customers outside several retail outlets - something similar to the scene following the launch of an Apple product. Samsung executives believe that the consumers' excitement over the smartphones is an indication of the fact that the company will book robust sales and profits this year.

Addressing an affiliates meeting at the company's headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday, Samsung vice-chairman Kwon Oh-hyun said, "The S6 should do well. The first week looks impressive."

Initial reports suggest that Samsung has received over 20 million preorders for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge. On the other hand, the U.S. carrier T-Mobile claimed it has already sold twice the number of Galaxy S6 devices compared to the Galaxy S5 handsets when that earlier edition was launched in April 2014.

Meanwhile, even before the handsets were launched, analysts quickly increased their sales estimates for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Earlier, they predicted that Samsung could sell 38 million units in 2015, but in early March, their forecast increased to 46 million. By late March, the figures increased further to 55 million.

The forecasts by analysts notwithstanding, Samsung hope that the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge would be selling even better than the predictions. Recently, a Samsung executive told the Korea Times, "We expect 70 million-plus."

If the expectations of the company come true, it may place the South Korean tech giant on par with Apple Inc., one of its closest rivals which had sales estimates of anything between 70 million and 80 million for its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus before their launch in September.

In fact, Apple sold 10 million iPhone 6/ iPhone 6 Plus units during their first weekend of their launch, and it is reported that the Cupertino-headquartered company is selling 74.5 million smartphones during the fourth quarter of last year.