Samsung looking to expand lead in Europe
Samsung looking to expand lead in Europe
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics aims to become the clear No. 2 cell phone vendor in Europe in 2006, it said on introducing three new models including a thinner successor of its fast-selling D600 slider model.
“Depending on what market data you use, what we found last year is that we achieved the No. 2 position in Europe but very close to the No. 3. We want to be the definite No. 2 this year,” Samsung’s European mobile communications chief Juha Park said in an interview at technology trade fair CeBIT on Thursday.
Samsung competes for the No. 2 spot in Europe with U.S.-based Motorola. It stayed just ahead of Motorola in Europe in 2005, but at a global level Motorola is bigger, and the U.S. rival gained ground on the back of variations of its successful ultra-thin RAZR model, such as the pink RAZR.
Samsung’s European market share, according to market research groups, was between 14 and 15 percent in 2005, above its global 12.1 percent market share.
“Our Korean designers are designing phones with Europe in mind, because Europe is the main market for GSM, and GSM is 70 percent of our business,” said Park, told Reuters after unveiling the three new handset models at CeBIT.
More: today.reuters.co.uk