With a wide variety of products scheduled for launch this year, Samsung Electronics Taiwan Co is set to achieve its sales objectives, its new president said yesterday.
"We will cast a wider net to target different consumer groups by offering them products from high, mid to low-end levels," Lee Chul-young, who took the helm of local operations in February, told reporters on the sidelines of a product launch yesterday.
He said Samsung Taiwan was on schedule to achieve the revenue target set earlier by predecessor Jeon Yong-sung.
Jeon said last December that the company had set a target of US$300 million (NT$9.97 billion) in revenues, a 20 percent increase.
Sales last year remained stable over the previous year, at US$250 million, Jeon said, adding that sales should reach US$500 million by 2010.
"These goals are achievable and we're getting closer," Lee said.
The company yesterday launched the K3, its latest MP3 player, which won the product innovation award at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Rather than a scroll wheel, the K3 has a blue-backlit four-direction touch-sensitive control and an 1.8-inch screen. The player does not play video, but extras include FM radio, photos, an alarm and optional detachable speakers.
Retail price is from NT$3,990 (US$120) to NT$6,490, depending on memory size, which ranges from 1 gigabyte to 4 gigabytes.
Samsung aims to become the No. 2 brand in the local MP3 player market this year after Apple Inc's iPods, with a 15 percent market share and sales of 120,000 units, Lee said.
Last year, it had a 9 percent share of the market with 70,000 units sold. Samsung also debuted its first personal-digital-assistant phone -- the Samsung Anycall i718 -- last month to tap into the booming local market.
It said it aimed to snatch a 12 percent handset market share by the end of the year, up from the 10 percent.
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