Smartphone market grows to 600,000 units

Sales of smartphones, which allow users to surf the net, send emails, run games and listen to music, apart from their use as phones, could reach 600,000 units this year in Romania, estimate representatives of South-Korean company Samsung.

“The market could grow from 400,000 units in 2010 to around 600,000 this year,” said Sorin Manea, manager of Samsung’s telecom division. He said Samsung had sold over 50,000 units of the Galaxy S from July 2010 until the present. Samsung’s smartphone, considered to be one of the leading rivals of Apple’s iPhone, costs 400 euros, but it can cost as little as 100 euros if bought with a phone and mobile Internet subscription. The market will grow in part because manufacturers will launch new mobile phones, as well as because the strong advertising for mobile Internet is proving fruitful.

The number of mobile phones sold last year in Romania fell by around 20% amid the difficult economy, to 3.3-3.5 million units. Romanians paid 250 million euros for mobile phones last year, according to Samsung data.