Samsung eyes leadership in mobile phone sales

MANILA, Philippines - Samsung Philippines is aiming to be the leader this year in terms of sales of mobile phones in the local market.

Samsung mobile phones head and director Glenn Glinoga said they are now in a very good position to challenge the leadership in the mobile market. The local market is currently dominated by Nokia.

“Our goal is to hit number one,” Glinoga emphasized.

According to Glinoga, they are aiming to sell about 4.5 million phones this year, or half of the projected nine-million total mobile phone sales in the country in 2011.

At present, Samsung is a strong number two in terms of sales volume in the Philippines, capturing even the low-end mobile market.

Glinoga said the original focus of Samsung is just to target mid-level mobile phone users, but they were able to attract even those in the low-end segment of the market.

“We are already the market leader in touch segment,” Glinoga said, adding that even the ultra-low end of the market were able to acquire Samsung touch phones due to their relative affordability vis-a-vis their features.

He said mobile phone sales of Samsung in the Philippines is comparable to the phone brand’s performance in Vietnam and Thailand.

Meanwhile, Glinoga said the introduction of newer models for its Samsung Galaxy product line will strengthen the phone brand’s hold of the Philippine mobile market.

“We already have a siginificant market share in terms of tablet and smartphone sales. Now that we no longer have restrictions in supply, we are confident to strengthen our market share and to also grow the market for tablets,” he said.

Samsung said it already holds more than 50 percent of the market for tablets through the Galaxy brand, topping Apple’s iPad. It added that it doubled its sales of tablets in the last few months.

For smartphones, the phone brand said that it grew five times the market growth of 40 percent in value and 60 percent in volume.