Samsung is one of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers and its representatives hope one of the growth drivers of the market in Romania will be its flagship model, Samsung Galaxy S5, officially launched in this country on Monday.
“The smartphone market will increase by about 30% this year. I think it’s a decent growth rate,” said Alexandru Munteanu, who became head of the telecom unit of Samsung Electronics Romania two months ago, after leaving Cosmote, the number three on the mobile telephony market in the country.
“I cannot expect to have 70% growth every year. One more 70% leap and we’ll have an all-smartphone market.”
The total mobile phone market increased by 4% to 5% last year, he added.
Sales of smartphones stood at about 1.5 million units last year, according to the data available on the market compared with 1 million units in 2012. The figures, however, are estimates provided by most of the companies in this business, but do include alternative channels such as websites where people post for-sale ads, the devices introduced in Romania by relatives who live abroad or specialist websites, which stock phones from other sources.
Such alternative channels account for an extra 2 million to 2.5 million units sold a year on top of the 4 million officially reported, said Dan Virtopeanu, managing partner of Breeze Mobile (part of Leo Burnett Group Romania).
Samsung accounted for 40% of the smartphone market last year. Its competitors include Apple, Nokia, LG, Sony and HTC. Competition became fiercer last year as Windows Phone handsets gained ground month by month to a market share of 10% in November-December.
Samsung intends to preserve market share in Romania with the launch of its new flagship, Galaxy S5, which it expects to sell in greater numbers than its predecessor, Galaxy S4.
“There is really a lot of interest in this phone and with all its improvements we hope it will sell better than S4. Feedback from partners is very good.”
He did not reveal the sales target for the new model or the sales figures for S4, saying that the latter had not ended its lifecycle.
“Sales of S4 were in line with expectations. Considering the experience with S3, which sold very well along S4, it will be the same with S4. It’s too early to say how much we sold because we are going to sell more,” the head of Samsung Electronics Romania’s telecom unit said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)