Samsung expects to sell 43% more phones this year:
INTERVIEW-Samsung <05930.KS> sees 10 pct market share in 2002
Reuters, 06.19.02, 6:23 AM ET
By Jennifer Tan
SINGAPORE, June 19 (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co on Wednesday raised its mobile phone sales and market share forecasts for 2002, defying industry worries over saturation and consumer reluctance to buy new handsets.
Samsung, the world's third-largest handset maker, expects to sell more than 40 million mobiles in 2002, up 43 percent from last year, and grab a market share of 10 percent versus 9.6 percent in the first quarter and 7.1 percent in 2001.
"We are selling in the mid- to high-end segment and are hitting such numbers in this segment," Ihn-Chul Chung, vice president of Samsung's Mobile Communications Division, told Reuters in an interview at the CommunicAsia trade show.
"We are selling slightly less than Nokia but more than the other vendors because consumers are buying Samsung's design and pricing."
The target of 40 million units this year is higher than the 36 million Samsung had forecast earlier. It sold 28 million in 2001 and 9.5 million in the first three months of this year.
In the March quarter, Samsung rose to third position after Finland's Nokia <NOK1V.HE>, which had a 34.7 percent market share, and Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people) of the United States at 15.5 percent, according to Gartner Dataquest.
Samsung was ranked ranked fourth in 2001. The mobile phone industry suffered a 3.2 percent fall in sales in 2001 from the year before -- the first drop in 10 years -- as cash-strapped operators cut subsidies and consumers delayed upgrades after global economies slowed.
Samsung expects the global market to chalk up handset sales of 400-415 million units in 2002, against 399.6 million in 2001, in line with what other handset makers are forecasting.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
Chung said Samsung was able to gain an edge over its rivals by focusing on colour screens and timely launches of new models.
"Colour will be the key word for a while, especially with the onset of photo messaging," he said, referring to next-generation multimedia messaging where users can send pictures and sound together with text.
"We also launch our new models very quickly."
Timeliness was perceived to be a weak area for Nokia, with it coming under pressure in recent months as rivals like Samsung and Sony Ericsson <6758.T><ERICb.ST> grabbed the lead with their colour-screen handsets, analysts said.
Nokia's colour-screen imaging phone, the 7650 with an in-built digital camera, will be available before the end of the month.
Samsung unveiled two new colour-screen models at CommunicAsia on Wednesday.
Shares of Samsung, also the world's largest memory chip maker, plunged four percent to 348,500 won on Wednesday on news of a U.S. investigation into alleged antitrust activities among computer chip manufacturers.
Copyright 2002, Reuters News Service
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