Samsung aims up high(-end) on the Romanian market

Samsung wants to rank second on the Romanian mobile phone market by the end of next year at the latest, Simon Rhee, Samsung Electronics Austria managing director and also the official in charge of marketing and strategy for CEE told Ziarul Financiar.

This is a bold goal, considering Samsung had an infinitesimal share of the market when it decided to directly enter the Romanian handset market early this year.

Samsung would also like to become one of the top three best-selling high-end mobile phone brands in one or two years. “We want to become number one on this market segment in the long run,” Simon Rhee said.

Samsung is, after all, selling only middle and high-end mobiles in Romania, i.e. colour display, polyphonic ringtones models in general, which may also come with a digital camera either built-in or detachable. The company will release three phone models equipped with digital cameras on the Romanian market by the end of 2003, as specified by Rhee. Samsung will be battling Nokia and Sony Ericsson on this market segment for the time being.

HAT Romania, branch of Israel-based HAT International in February became the sole distributor of the mobile phones made by the South Korean group. The company’s goal is to gain 10% of the local market this year and sell approximately 120,000-160,000 handsets, according to Claudia Popa, Hat Romania associate director. She estimates the market to absorb 1.2 million new mobile phones at an average price of 200 euros in 2003. iuliana.susanu@zf.ro