By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Samsung Electronics said it will ``seriously'' try to tackle Nokia's dominancy in developing nations with more investment in low-end phones.
The Korean phone maker, which trails far behind Nokia in the global phone market, said it is encouraged by its increase of sales in countries such as India, where Nokia still enjoys a dominant market share of more than 70 percent. The real battle will soon begin and Samsung is confident of winning, said David Steel, vice president of mobile telecommunication.
``It's true that Nokia is very strong. Nokia has a very strong position and brand. But we are in a good position. Our brand history is good,'' he told investors at Samsung Tech Forum on Wednesday. ``If you have been following Samsung for some time, you will know that when Samsung starts something seriously, then something serious will start to happen. And now we are starting to take it seriously.''
Samsung is the world's second handset seller with a 15-percent market share, after Nokia's 38 percent and ahead of Motorola's 13 percent, according to this week's report from research firm Gartner. The Korean phone maker has relatively neglected emerging markets until last year as the firm wanted to focus on high-end phones sold to rich consumers in Europe and North America.
``Our strategy has really changed over the last 12 months to reflect the change in the market,'' he said. ``We didn't look too hard in the emerging markets last year. But this year, we have already sold 46 million units until the third quarter, which is bigger than 41 million units we sold last year.''
The brisk sales in emerging markets and consistent brand policy have made it ``happily revise'' its annual sales target to 160 million units from 150 million. Furthermore, the firm hopes to achieve 200 million units next year, most of which should come at the expense of Nokia.
Nokia's leadership in the mobile phone industry looks almost unassailable. It is selling twice as many phones as Samsung, and is especially strong in emerging markets such as China and India thanks to its cost management and distribution strategies. Samsung is rapidly improving its own cost structure and supply and distribution under the provision of new CEO Choi Gee-sung, Steel said.
Choi, 56, is building his reputation as Samsung's new star CEO. Until January, he led the Digital Media division to become the world's largest TV seller. He was then deployed to the mobile phone division to hoist its slowing sales and stagnant profits.
Steel is the only South Korea-based foreign executive of Samsung Electronics, and he has made a good pair with Choi in the Digital Media division as a marketing strategist. He moved to the Telecommunications division in January along with Choi.
``We have been under new leadership for one year. We are staring to capture the emerging market. We also have a lot of opportunities in the multimedia sector in the U.S. and Europe and other countries around the world,'' he said.
He also said that Samsung has no plan to outsource its mobile phone manufacturing. Instead, it will increase manufacturing capacities in and out of South Korea, he said.