Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s second-largest handset maker by market share behind Finland’s Nokia Oyj, will focus on high-end customers this year because high-end phones are more profitable, a company official said yesterday.
“While units [shipments] are important, even more important is the value of each handset unit. Samsung will focus on mid to high-end phones this year to drive up revenues as we see higher margins associated with high-end phones,” Smile Kim, president of Samsung Electronics’ Taiwan branch, yesterday said.
Samsung expects to ship 200 million units worldwide this year, compared with last year’s 196.6 million units.
But Kim said he saw an increase in rush orders for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) from Samsung’s memory chip department and believed that signs point to a “warming up” in downstream technology business.
In Taiwan, Samsung hopes to lead the market this year, with a sales target of US$200 million, Kim said.
Research by US-based Strategy Analytics Inc shows the global handset market grew 4.9 percent in shipment volume to 1.18 billion units last year, from 1.12 billion units.
Nokia and Samsung claimed the top two spots last year with a market share of 39.8 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively, on shipments of 468.4 million and 196.6 million units each, Strategy Analytics’ data showed.
Next in the rankings for mobiles by worldwide market share were LG Electronics Inc, Motorola Inc and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd, in that order.
Samsung’s handset focus this year will be on improving user-interface, promoting high-definition (HD) quality visual and sound, and introducing touch screen technology across different feature phones, Kim said.
The firm also wants to seek leadership in niche markets across product lines, such as “being No. 1 in the domestic 40-inch full HD TV category,” he said.
Ryu Jae-hyun, a director of the mobile marketing department of Samsung Electronics’ Taiwan branch, said customers would see Ultra Touch S8300 in the style category at the end of next month, as well as M7600 and M6710 in multimedia category sometime in June.
“These new models are currently on display at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,” Ryu said at the same briefing.
Also See: Phone operators set to provide ‘chat’ services with boost
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS