To gain market share, Samsung planning sleek new mobile phones

The Samsung Galaxy S6?

Steps being taken to overcome Samsung’s difficulties in the mobile phone market from late last year

In a bid to gain ground in the mobile market this year, Samsung Electronics intends to release a premium mobile phone with special features, as well a slim mid-range phone.

“We will increase our lead in the market by equipping our premium smartphones with special functions and our mid-range smartphones with a slim design and an AMOLED display,” Samsung said in a seminar for investors held on Jan. 29.

The company added that, in the first quarter of the year, it would release the Galaxy A5 and A3 - which are already available in India - on the global market.

Samsung plans to preview the Galaxy S6 - a new product designed to vie with Apple’s iPhone 6 - at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which will be taking place in Spain in March. It will release the phone to the public in the same month.

Special features on the phone are likely to include wireless charging, fingerprint recognition, and a dual curved display.

Samsung Electronics seems to be betting that its technological prowess will lead it to victory in the premium mobile phone market.

In addition, Samsung is planning to supply its Galaxy A5 and A3, which are in the 300,000-400,000 won (US$270-$360) price range, to other countries than India in order to increase its market share.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, Samsung Electronics recorded sales of around 74.5 million units, around the same as Apple, according to Strategy Analytics, an American market research firm.

The two strategies are aimed at overcoming difficulties that Samsung Electronics faced in the smartphone market last year.

On Jan. 29, the company announced that its operating profits increased by 5.29 trillion won (US$4.81 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2014. This was 30.24% up from the previous quarter, but represented a 36.37% decline (8.31 trillion won) year on year. The company posted 52.73 trillion won in sales, which was also 9.83% lower than the previous year.

Samsung Electronics blamed its sluggish performance on stiffening competition in the smartphone market. Samsung’s IM (IT and mobile) division, which is responsible for mobile phones, posted 1.96 trillion won in operating profits, only 35.8% of the figures for the same period the year before (5.47 trillion won).

The company managed to prevent a steep drop in performance by boosting operating profits in its semiconductor division by 2.7 trillion won.

　

By Lee Jeong-hun, staff reporter

　

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