HAT seeks to double Samsung market

The official distributor of Samsung mobile phones, Hat Romania, will make approximately 40 million euro turnover this year, double last year”s figures, said Alin Carstea, the company”s vice-president. The turnover in 2004 stood at 19 million euros, he added. This year”s estimates point to a doubling in the number of phones sold, as well as in the market share. “In the first fifteen months since the Romanian debut (the autumn of 2003 i.e.) we sold 200,000 Samsung mobile phones,” Carstea said. Samsung officials had previously stated that the phones the Korean company sells in Romania had accounted for 10-12% of the market last year, with this year”s share to reach 18-20%. “Although there are no independent estimates, we may say we are the leaders of the camera phone segment,” Carstea stated. Hat demonstrated the first 3G Samsung phones for the Romanian market on Thursday, the Z130 and Z500 models. ZF