Samsung mobile handsets all the rage among Chinese
koreaherald.co.kr
In a recent survey, Chinese mobile phones users turned out to favor Samsung Electronics and Nokia. And the results are telling since Samsung is competing with Nokia on an equal footing for a bigger share in the fast-growing mobile handset market in China.
Samsung's mobile phone brand power is surging in East Asia, including China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, thanks to the company's aggressive marketing and continued efforts to improve its design and quality.
Samsung is already the world's third-largest mobile phone maker, with its superb design and functionality innovation setting a new trend in the fast-evolving handset industry.
In January alone, Samsung shipped more than 4 million mobile handsets to overseas markets. Company officials estimate that the first-quarter shipment will reach 13 million.
"The shrinking domestic market is worrisome, but Samsung's handsets are selling briskly in overseas markets including China," a Samsung official said. He noted that Samsung's fast-paced move to upgrade handsets with color-screen panels and digital cameras is now paying off.
A local brokerage house in Seoul said Samsung would post 3.17 trillion won in revenue in the first quarter this year from its mobile business alone, recording a operating margin of more than 30 percent.
Samsung officials in charge of mobile handset export also shrugged off concerns over the Chinese market where prices are plunging due to the oversupply. "In China, the so-called high-end market is growing in connection with cdma2000 1x and GPRS services, which is good for Samsung," said Seo Ki-yong, senior manager of Telecommunication Management Business at Samsung.
Korean mobile handset makers are upping the ante in the Chinese market by rolling out high-powered cdma2000 1x camera phones. Samsung and other Korean firms are set to clash with Japanese rivals in the camera phone market in China.
Japanese manufacturers are known for producing high-level digital camera technologies, while Korean players are known for their innovative handset designs.
But the heated competition is also feared to undercut profitability of Korean manufacturers at a time when the Chinese market is inundated with cheap mobile phones amid worries on oversupply.
Mobile phone manufacturers worldwide are increasingly shifting their focus toward multimedia-oriented camera phones to grapple with the deepening saturation of voice call markets.
Camera phones
Last month, Sanyo, a Japanese electronics maker, introduced cdma2000 1x phone (SCP-500) for the first time in China, and Toshiba is hurrying up to follow suit this month.
Toshiba's 1x phone will reportedly adopt 260,000-color TFT-LCD screen, the first major step to showcase its upscale mobile phone technology in China.
The CDMA market in China has been dominated by Korean handset makers like Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. But the market structure there is likely to see a wave of changes since Japanese firms are determined to carve out a bigger share.
Samsung said that it will unveil a new lineup of camera phones this month, starting with a 65,000-color LCD model (X319).
Sony-Ericsson is also planning to provide a camera phone armed with flashlight, while Panasonic and NEC reportedly consider joining the Chinese market.
Korean handset makers led by Samsung show a degree of caution over the aggressive moves by Japanese counterparts largely because Japan is leading the camera phone market.
Although Korea is one of the top-rated mobile countries with more than 32 million users, Japan is clearly ahead in the production and sales of camera phones, drawing strength from cutting-edge parts technologies related to small cameras.
Of 20 million camera phones sold worldwide, more than 15 million units were sold in Japan, according to Strategy Analytics, a market research firm.
Japanese firms are especially strong at producing and modifying mini camera modules. Mainstream phones by Korean and Japanese makers are now equipped with 300,000-pixel digital cameras, but the trend will move toward 1 million-pixel models within this year, led by Japanese manufacturers.
Samsung and other Korean handset makers are accelerating technological innovation for built-in cameras, jacking up the pixel number and improving photography features.
Samsung is betting that its upscale design and multimedia features will help stave off attacks by Japanese rivals.
Some 75 million camera phones are expected to be sold worldwide this year, accounting for about 17 percent of total handset output.
Separately, Korean companies are worried about a slide in the price of mobile handsets in China, affected by the growing oversupply problem.
Pantech, for instance, earns 50 percent of its total revenue from its export to China, and the local prices of mainstream models already plunged 20 percent in the first two months of this year.
The number of foreign and Chinese handset makers active in China is close to 40, aggravating the already explosive oversupply problem. At the same time, local Chinese handset manufacturers are ratcheting up production volume at rapid pace, posing a threat to foreign players.
Analysts said that if price-cutting competition intensifies further, some Korean manufacturers will be forced to live with smaller - or near-absent - profits. China's annualized demand for mobile phones is estimated at 80 million units, but supply by local and foreign manufacturers tops 150 million units.
Sewon Telecom, which earned 90 percent of its revenue from China, and Pantech are preparing to weather price-cutting pressure, but the outlook remains wobbly at best.
Analysts said the manufacturing technology gap between Korean and Chinese handset makers has narrowed from three years to one year, suggesting that Korea's edge might be eliminated in the near future. But they noted that Samsung is guarding its technological edge and boosting its brand awareness among Chinese consumers, which means the company is relatively safe from the sharp price cut in China.
Samsung is also strengthening its marketing and rolling out new products in order to outsmart its rivals in China and other key markets.
For instance, it recently introduced the first "Dick Tracy" style GPRS wristwatch phone at the CeBIT 2003 IT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany earlier this month. The GPRS Class 10 watch phone, offers one and a half hours of continuous talk time and 80 hours of stand-by time at the flick of a wrist. The handset also supports voice-activated dialing and includes a built-in phone book and 40 different polyphonic ring tones.
Said Park Sang-jin, Senior Vice President & General Manager for Samsung's Mobile Communication Division, Telecommunication Network Business, "Consumer research tells us that people want lightweight phone solutions, as part of the need to stay in touch wherever they go and whatever they are doing."
The phone, which weighs under 80 grams including battery and measures just 37.8 x 64 x 17.7 mm. The phone supports WAP 1.2, Bluetooth and Speakerphone technologies.
To maximize users' experience, the watch phone comes with a bright, easy to read 256 OLED (Organic Light Emitting Display) colour screen that features generous 96 x 64 pixel resolution.
Samsung also unveiled a set of smart phones, which includes the Palm OS based SGH-i500, the Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 based SGH-i700 and the SGH-D700, based on the Symbian OS.
The SGH-i500 is Samsung's very first phone using the Palm OS 5.2. The GPRS tri-band phone features a PDA, MMS, WAP 2.0 browser and built-in 300,000 pixel CMOS camera making full use of the 65,000 color, TFT-LCD screen. Measuring 87 x 54 x 26.9 mm the phone weighs just 150g. It also has a media pack supporting video, audio and still images.
SGH-i700 smart phone is based on Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 platform with Pocket Office applications including Word, Excel and Outlook, as well as Pocket MSN Messenger and Internet Explorer, making it idea for business people who want to keep in contact with the office or customers whilst on the move.
The SGH-i700 is also a GPRS tri-band handset with a full range of features including Media Player, MMS, WAP 2.0 browser, voice recognition. It includes HTML and WML Internet access, a built-in 300,000 pixel digital camera, 65,000 colour TFT-LCD screen and USB/IrDA interface.
Completing the trio of new Samsung smart phones is the SGH-D700, based on the Symbian OS and Series60 UI platform. This includes wireless Internet access in a compact clamshell form.
The SGH-D700 has a rotating LCD screen and a camcorder feature with a built-in VGA 300K pixel digital camera. The video messaging feature enables users to exchange clips of film through MMS and e-mail. It also is fully portable and can access existing wireless data services and voice call systems. It has a MP3 playback feature and includes full MMS, which allows users to create and send their own multimedia content. The interface for PC Sync is operated through USB and it gives higher speed data rates.
Samsung also rolled out its latest advanced camera phones, the SGH-P400, SGH-P410 and SGH-V200.
The Samsung SGH-P400, with a rotating screen, allows users to talk, take and send pictures or data quickly and easily through a single device, with the convenience of a rotating viewfinder. It has a built-in CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera that pivots 180 degrees, and a flip-up cover which doubles as the rotating viewfinder when taking pictures.
Its unique, independently rotating screen and pivoting camera give this phone camcorder-like convenience for picture taking. No matter where the camera is facing, the viewfinder can be rotated for the most convenient viewing.
Samsung also previewed a new in-built camera phone, the SGH-P410. The phone features two color LCD screens: the internal TFD 65,000-colour screen features a generous 128 x 160 pixel resolution making it bright and easy to read; the external 256-colour OLED (Organic Light Emitting Display) screen.
It has multi-shot-press the shutter and it will automatically fire off 15 rapid shots capturing your extra movement and a video capture feature, which records 40 seconds of footage. It also supports the photo editing features such as 5 Photo effects and 30 photo frames. The Samsung SGH-P410 will launch in the European market in early third quarter of 2003.
The company also put out "intenna" mobile phone (model name: SPH-X8300) from this weekend for the first time. The PCS dual color "intenna" phone has an antenna within a mobile phone.
Intenna phone is very convenient to carry as it removed the inconveniences of external antenna and the damage possibility of mobile phone or garments.
Fully considering activity and fashion trends of teens and 20s, the product has a round ring instead of removing an antenna so that a user can treat it as a pendant by using a necklace. The design was made in order for users to feel the phone as an accessory.
By introducing this product with state-of-the-art design that have an external antenna within a very limited space and distinguished ultramodern design, Samsung once again proved its technology power.
The dual color intenna phone (SPH-X8300) has adopted 256 color organic EL, the best quality product among organic ELs for its external display, and 65,000 color LCD for internal display. The dual color intenna phone has sound UI function that makes diverse sound by pressing each key button and plays 40 chord melodies.
(insight@koreaherald.co.kr)
By Yang Sung-jin Staff reporter |
