The Hindu Business Line : Samsung eyes 50% growth in mobile sales

SAMSUNG India Electronics Ltd (SIEL) is targeting a 50 per cent growth in mobile handset sales in 2005. In 2004, the Korean major sold, on an average, 100,000 handsets every month, said Mr Hyunchul Ryu, Director of Sales and Marketing (South West Asia) of SIEL.

Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday to announce the national launch of the SGH-D500 mobile handset, among other offerings, Mr Ryu said sales of Samsung handsets had gone down to 70,000-80,000 per month between January and March this year. He attributed this to "issues pertaining to taxation."

However, Mr Ryu said that given the growth in mobile telephony in India and Samsung's array of mobile offerings, its handset sales would register a 50 per cent growth over 2004.

According to him, the share of handset sales in the company's turnover is expected to go up from 17 per cent to 25 per cent in 2005. During the year ended December 31, 2004, SIEL recorded a turnover of Rs 4,800 crore, up from Rs 3,470 crore in 2003.

Mr Ryu said SIEL had launched a dozen-and-a-half mobile handset models in the Indian market. The company hopes to capture a 25 per cent share of its addressable market. Eighty per cent of SIEL's mobile handset sales would comprise colour and camera phones, he said.

In addition to the SGH-D500, which has been adjudged as the "world's best mobile handset" at the 3GSM Association World Congress held at Cannes, France in February , SIEL launched three other handset models. While the SGH-D500 is priced at Rs 22,499, the other three models are priced between Rs 3,999 and Rs 12,949.

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