Nokia Watchout!>
From the October 4, 1999, issue of Wireless Week
Samsung's New Offering Suddenly In Spotlight
By Bruce Felps
NEW ORLEANS--Nokia, look out. The CDMA handset market has a vendor itching for the No. 1 spot. After promising a
new line of phones earlier this year, Samsung Telecommunications America Inc. last month debuted two handsets at PCIA's
Personal Communications Showcase '99.
The flagship, the SCH-6100, made for Sprint PCS, sports a polished silver metal casing and flip front. The model measures
only 4 inches long, 1.8 inches wide and 0.7 inches thick. Tipping the scales at 3 ounces with a lithium battery, the phone weighs
less than a basic Zippo lighter.
The diminutive device still sports a keypad that rivals Motorola's StarTAC in size, tucked underneath the front cover. The
dual-mode phone operates at 1900 MHz for CDMA and 800 MHz for AMPS, and comes equipped with voice-activated
dialing, voice memo, personal information management capabilities, a Web browser and a calculator. The display also provides
animated graphics--either to tickle users' fancies or, perhaps, to allow carriers to provide advertising.
The question hanging in the air is whether this sophisticated, attractive device--and three others introduced at PCS '99--can
help Samsung succeed against more established players in the U.S. handset market.
Pete Skarzynski, Samsung's vice president of wireless sales and marketing, says the new phones--and the company's $500
million contract with Sprint for three of them--definitely boost the handset maker's status in the U.S. market. "We're probably
No. 2 in CDMA, but we're probably No. 1 in PCS phones as a whole," he suggests.
Jane Zweig, vice president of Herschel Shosteck Associates Ltd., offers a different, but also upbeat view: "They're definitely in
the top five and probably in the top three. They have some nice looking phones, decent quality and they're putting pressure on
[other handset makers] to lower the prices. Samsung is definitely a force to be reckoned with."
Samsung's new line consists of three other models: the SCH-850 digital model for cellular carriers; its sister model, the
SCH-8500, which is dual mode and dual band; and the tri-mode, tri-band SCH-2500. Suggested retail prices for all the new
phones range from $79 to $199. "With four new products this year, we've probably discontinued more models than most
[handset] companies introduced," says Skarzynski.
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