“We as a market have reached this historic moment when smartphones are selling better than feature phones. Smartphones are taking the lead this month. The difference is rather small, though,” Manea added.
The local subsidiary of South Korea’s Samsung is the largest mobile phone business in Romania.
In 2010, smartphones accounted for less than 10% of total mobile phone sales in Romania and more than 50% of the phones sold cost less than EUR50. The smartphone market rose to 600,000 units in 2011 only to reach 1 million in 2012.
This year, the number of smartphones sold may reach 300,000 in December alone, according to ZF’s calculations.
“We’ll certainly sell most smartphones in December. Sales in December are usually double the annual average excluding December.”
The total mobile phone market will see a single-digit decline this year to almost four million units, 1.5 million of which smartphones. Feature phones will sell better in terms of number of units in 2013, because smartphones beat them close to the end of the year, Manea says.
Asked what Samsung’s market share in Romania was, Manea said the company sold more than 50% of the smartphones on the market and was also the leader of the feature phone segment, with a lower market share there.
Samsung expects its sales drivers in the last quarter to be Galaxy S3 and S4 models and their mini versions, as well as the new Galaxy Note, now in its third iteration.
“We have high expectations from Note 3, first of all from the customers who own the previous versions. I hope we’ll sell more than 10,000 units by yearend.”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)