The world’s largest cellphone maker, Samsung, expects smartphones to continue driving its sales and profits in Asia, despite fewer mobile phones being sold globally by manufacturers in 2012.
While so-called “feature phones” may not be so popular now, more people are buying smartphones that cost more, said Gregory Lee, Samsung Asia’s president and chief executive officer.
“Phone units may go down but value has gone up,” he told reporters here in Jakarta, when asked if slower phone sales worldwide might impact sales for Asia.
A rapid proliferation and increase in value of the high-end models, he claimed, would continue to drive sales and profits for the Korean company.
In 2012, it had overtaken Nokia as the top cellphone maker, even as overall mobile phone sales fell for the global market, according to research firm Gartner.
Samsung, along with Apple, had been the biggest winners in the current smartphone race. Last year, the entire Samsung Electronics group, which also makes the components used in phones, had record sales of US$187 billion. In Southeast Asia, Oceania and Taiwan, it grew its revenues by 63 per cent in 2012.
At the company’s yearly showcase of its latest smartphones, TVs and home appliances this week, Samsung is touting the Galaxy Note 8.0, a cross-over between a tablet and a phone, as the “it’ product to own.
Along with it are mammoth 85-inch ultra-high definition TVs (UDTVs) which can display four times as much detail as before.
