Samsung of South Korea has high hopes for its tablet computers, which accounted for one-fifth of company revenue in the first year of launch.
The company sold 10,000 of its flagship Galaxy Tab 10.1 model in only one month.
“The market response was much beyond our initial expectation,” said Sitthichoke Nopchinabutr, head of marketing telecommunication for Samsung Electronics.
“We’ve revised up our Galaxy Tab sales by 100% to 200,000 units in six months,” he said.
Touted as the world’s slimmest tablet _ it is 8.6mm thick and weighs 595 grammes _ the Android 3.1 Honeycomb device features a 10.1-inch display, a 3-megapixel camera and Bluetooth and USB connectivity supporting many multimedia file types.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 connects through next-generation dual-band WiFi access and HSPA allowing data transfer up to 21 megabits per second. It also provides access to a variety of content services through Samsung Apps.
Samsung signed a deal with Asia Books for the latter to provide more than 100,000 electronic books and magazines.
Samsung has spent 100 million baht on promotional activities over a six-month period.
He attributed the success of both its tablets and smartphones to Google’s Android mobile operating system, which is free to hardware manufacturers. An open-source licence is also made available, allowing developers to build apps for devices.
The increasing data demand fuelled by 3G wireless broadband technology has also triggered a boom in smartphone and tablet sales.
Since its launch, the Galaxy Tab has been the biggest rival to the iPad.
Samsung has up to a 80% share in the Android market in Thailand, where overall tablet sales average 80,000 units per month, he said.
“We expect our tablet revenue to double in 2012. We aim to maintain our leadership in the tablet market in Thailand next year, helped by segmenting the product lineup,” Mr Sitthichoke said.
Samsung recently introduced the Galaxy Tab 8.9, targeting those who find the mobility of its predecessor Galaxy Tab 7 too limiting and the PC-like Galaxy 10.1 too heavy, he said. The numbers behind Samsung’s model names indicate the screen size in inches.
An industry source said Samsung had dethroned longstanding market leader Nokia in the Thai mobile market, with a 37% share by value and 34% by volume as of August.
Nokia had a 36% market share in volume and a 33% in value.
Mr Sitthichoke said overall handset demand is expected at 14 million units this year, up from 11-12 million last year, driven mainly by smartphones. The local handset market rose 5 billion baht this year to 40-45 billion.
Source:http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/computer/262045/samsung-doubles-target-on-galaxy-debut
