South Korea’s Samsung is looking to gain traction in Japan, where it has just a 5 per cent market share, with its flagship Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, but it will drop its corporate logo in favour of operator brands.

Its latest devices will go on sale this week and be marketed as “Docomo Galaxy” and “au Galaxy”, the Korea Herald said.

Samsung, with a 25 per cent share of the global smartphone market last year, is overshadowed in Japan by Apple (41 per cent share) and domestic players (Sony, 18 per cent; Sharp 12 per cent; and Fujitsu 9 per cent), according to Strategy Analytics.

The company launched the two models on 10 April in 20 countries, with high expectations that strong sales will help it turn around its mobile business, which lost market share in 2014.

Analysts forecast sales of the two devices will hit 50 to 60 million units this year, significantly higher than the 45 million Galaxy S4 units shipped in its first year, the Herald said.

Earlier in the month Samsung released preliminary numbers for the first quarter that indicated a sequential improvement in quarterly profit. The company said Q1 operating profit will be KRW5.90 trillion ($5.4 billion), down 30.51 per cent from KRW8.49 trillion in Q1 2014, but up 11.53 per cent from KRW5.29 trillion in Q4 2014.

According to Reuters, this will be the company’s highest profit in three quarters, and could indicate it is on track for an earnings recovery even before the Galaxy S6 has reached customers.