Samsung Electronics aims to treble smartphone shipments this year to take HTC’s place as the world’s fourth largest producer of the devices, the boss of the firm’s mobile division says.
Shin Jong-kyun told the Korea Times the firm “ plans to sell 18 million smartphones this year, up from 6 million last year,"
If the target is reached, Samsung would enjoy an 8% share of the smartphone market in 2010, up from just 3% in 2009, according to forecasts from Strategy Analytics. That would place the Korean vendor fourth behind Nokia, RIM and Apple.
Key to Samsung’s smartphone strategy will be devices powered by its own OS, called Bada. The first Bada-enabled smartphones are due to be unveiled in March.
At the same time, Samsung is increasing its line-up of Android handsets, a move that deals a blow to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS.
It plans to unveil its first Android OS devices later this month or early March, Shin said.
“There'll be a big change in our smartphone strategy this year," Shin told the SCMP.
“We plan to strengthen our smartphone business this year by not just improving hardware offerings but also beefing up content, applications [and] services.”
Samsung’s more aggressive smartphone stance will add to the sector’s pricing woes. Smartphone price wars will inevitably drive down vendors' margins this year.