Samsung increased its smartphone sales target for the year, and it is banking on promotions like the ones Verizon Wirless (NYSE:VZ) and T-Mobile USA are pushing for its Galaxy S smartphones to meet those projections.
Both Verizon and T-Mobile are offering buy-one-get-one-free promotions for their variants of the Galaxy S, Samsung's flagship phone. Verizon began selling its version, the Fascinate, online today, and is offering the phone for $200 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate (Verizon customers will have to wait for the $100 mail-in rebate for the second phone as well). T-Mobile, which began selling its version, the Vibrant, back in July, is offering the phone for $200 with a two-year contract, and is offering customers another one for free after a $50 mail-in rebate.
Most variants of the Galaxy S run on Android 2.1 and sport a 1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and 5-megapixel camera. Sprint Nextel's (NYSE:S) version, the Epic, is the company's second WiMAX smartphone and also has a full Qwerty keyboard. AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) began pushing its version, the Captivate, last month. U.S. Cellular and Cellular South also plan to launch their own versions later this fall.
J.K. Shin, the president of Samsung's Mobile communications division, told reporters at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin last week that Samsung expects to ship 25 million smartphones this year, up from a previous target of 18 million. That earlier target, announced in February, was triple the number of smartphones Samsung shipped in 2009. Samsung is planning on riding the Galaxy S through the holiday shopping season.
For more:
- see this Engadget post
- see this Mobile Burn post
- see this T-Mobile release
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