Samsung launches phones, aims to be No. 1 in RI
Sari P. Setiogi The Jakarta Post Jakarta
Samsung launched two new mobile phone models here on Monday as part of its drive to become the top player in the Indonesian market next year.
"At the moment we are still number two as some people still believe in conventional brands, however people now start to love innovations and new technology and we can offer that," PT Samsung Electronics Indonesia marketing director Lee Kang Hyun told reporters at the launch.
Samsung claims to hold the second largest mobile phone market share in Indonesia after Nokia, and the third largest worldwide holding, a 12.5 percent global market share. There is no clear information about the size of Samsung's market share here.
Lee said this was partly because of black market products distributed widely in Indonesia, so it was hard to find out the official number of sales. This also explains why other companies also claim to be number two in Indonesia.
The two new models launched by Samsung are the SGH-E700 and SGH-X100.
Company marketing manager Ade Kurniawan said the SGH-E700 would be sold for Rp 4.25 million (US$471). It would be the first mobile phone with a capability of 15 multi-shot and digital zoom up to five levels.
The SGH-100 would be sold for Rp 1.75 million, targeting the middle-class market, he said.
Ade said that Samsung's products with cutting-edge technology would further strengthen the company's brand in the Indonesian market.
"Our research and development division always works on the latest technology as we believe the future of mobile phones will be on the multimedia, not only on telecommunications," he said.
"Our target market is the middle-upper class who understand the latest technology," said Ade. However, he acknowledged that the market here was still dominated by low-end products.
Planning to launch about 16 new phones next year, Ade believed their sales could grow by about 20 percent to 30 percent next year. Samsung has so far launched 12 mobile phones this year.