3G sets the paradigm for high-end phones

In a study about cell phone trends, a consultation firm called GFK reported that next year 3G will already be the standard for high end phones.

According to Samsung Electronics Head for Mobile Phones Team Fe U. Varilla that 3G network received lower response from the market here in the country than what was expected. She said that the trend these days is that consumers usually purchase 3G phones without using the 3G service.

Seeing to this particular trend, Samsung has developed 3.5G HSDPA for their cellular phones and this was adopted to drive their sales higher.

“Since GFK reported that in next year’s trend, 3G will become the standard, the company decided that all our phones will be equipped with 3.5G service offering so that we can drive our sales higher,” said Varilla.

Varilla pointed out that compared to their leading competitor, all their mobile phones including low-end ones are colored and has superior quality. She said that the company does not want to manufacture units that are not of quality as their main concern is quality and value over volume.

As of the GFK studies done last August, it was reported that Samsung emerged in the number two spot for the global cellular phone manufacturer next to Nokia and far beyond Motorola. Varilla said that the company is expecting to be far away from Motorola in terms of sales scale by year end.

Based on an in-house market share report, Samsung is projected to capture 24% of the market share for mobile phones in the country this year.

Also, Samsung’s E250 cell phone model which has a camera and an expandable memory is considered as the top three selling mobile phone in the country contributing to 18% of the total units sold for this year.

As far as growing the business is concerned, Varilla discussed that Samsung is strongly moving towards focusing on key cities outside Manila. This is also one reason why they have invested in their recent venture called the concept shops which has been opened at the Ayala Center recently.

“We are strengthening the company’s vision of enhancing consumer’s lifestyle by bringing closer Samsung products to consumers inside and outside Metro Manila,” said Varilla. 

Every quarter, Samsung releases 20 brand new units of cellular phones and their latest priority are their so-called Ultrathin Edition II.

Varilla said that in terms of value, their Ultrathin phones are more recently profitable product segment than their VGA phones which is so far their most saleable cellular phone product category. 

Samsung does its high-end phone’s product research and development in Korea and their low-end phones in India and China.

According to another GFK survey, it was also reported that Cebu has the biggest market share for cell phones in the country compared to Manila and other key cities. Cebu also captures 20% of Samsung’s nationwide market share.