In response to the rising spending power of young people, Samsung Electronics Co launched a series of hip digital music players yesterday, aiming to strengthen its local share.
"This new series is a low-end model, which will enable us to grab more share in the local market and boost our unit shipments," said Annie Huang (
Sales of digital music players in Taiwan would total 1.2 million units this year, including those that support Mpeg-4 video format, market researcher GfK Marketing Services estimated.
The figure represents a 4 percent increase from last year, it said.
For the first four months, there were a total of 386,000 music players sold in Taiwan, with video-supported models representing 149,000 units, GfK figures showed.
In April, Transcend Information Inc (創見), a Taiwanese maker of memory modules and USBs, unseated Apple Inc's iPods for the first time to take the No. 1 spot with a line of affordably priced lower-end models.
Transcend garnered 13 percent of unit share. iPods took a 12 percent share and Samsung came in third with a 7 percent share, according to GfK tallies.
Samsung is confident it will secure the second brand in the local digital music player market this year, with a 15 percent market share and sales of 120,000 units, Lee Chul-young, president of its Taiwan branch, said in April.
Last year, it had a 9 percent share with 70,000 units sold, Lee said.
The new "U3" MP3 series boasts five choices of colors, with built-in universal-serial-bus (USB) plugs and a clip to attach the player to clothing, so they are a good gadget for teenagers during these happy summer holidays, she told reporters at a product launch yesterday.
They come with price tags of NT$2,290 (US$70) to NT$4,290, depending on size of the storage.
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