A couple of months ago, Samsung’s Mobile President Jong-kyun Shin said he expected the Galaxy Note 2 to hit the 20-million sales mark, and it looks like the “phablet” device is well on its way. On Monday, the company announced that sales of its next-generation tablet-smartphone hybrid have reached 5 million units.

This milestone comes just a few weeks after the Korea-based electronics firm reported that it has sold 3 million units of its Galaxy Note 2. Two million of these 5 million handsets were sold in under one month, according to Slash Gear.

While the Galaxy Note 2 still has a lot of catching up to do when compared with Samsung’s Galaxy S3 -- that smartphone's already surpassed the 30-million sales mark since its May release -- the “phablet’s” North American debut certainly broadened its market. When the Galaxy Note 2 debuted about five months ago, other areas around the globe such as South Korea and the United Kingdom were the first to see the device. It wasn’t until last month that carriers in the United States began offering Samsung’s new stylus-enabled 5.5-inch smartphone after much anticipation.

Some North American users are still waiting to get their hands on the Galaxy Note 2, since one major carrier in the U.S. has yet to launch the device on its network. Verizon has been offering pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 2 for quite some time, but has not announced a hard release date for the handset. The official product page on Verizon’s website says that it will ship on Nov. 27, but there has been no word on when users will see it in stores. Best Buy, however, reportedly began stocking demo units of the device on its showroom floor last week, indicating that the Verizon-branded Galaxy Note 2 could become available very soon.

In terms of these recently released sales numbers for the Galaxy Note 2, its important to remember that this 5-million figure probably includes sales to Samsung’s distributors, carriers and retailers. It does not necessarily mean that the Galaxy Note 2 will be found in the hands of 5 million users, but it does indicate the demand retailers expect to see.

Samsung is projected to push out more than 60 million units in total for the fourth quarter of 2012, and these sales are expected to be driven by its flagship Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2. Analysts from investment bank UBS have predicted 61.5 million units to be exact, which indicates an increase of about 6 million from the last quarter. In Q3 2012, Samsung sold about 55 million smartphones, according to data obtained by Android Authority.

While Q4 has the holiday season on its side, this year’s previous quarter saw a 47 percent increase in smartphone sales. Android dominated these sales, claiming 72.4 percent of the market share and selling more than 122,000 units, according to data from Gartner posted last week. Apple’s iOS devices, by point of comparison, accounted for 13.9 percent of the market share with more than 23 thousand units sold.

As the Galaxy Note 2 continues to gain momentum in the market, Samsung may be plotting its next major smartphone release. The Galaxy S3 successor is rumored to debut in February 2013 with an upgraded processor and a 13-megapixel camera, but Samsung has yet to officially reveal this information

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