Company aims to capture 24 per cent MP3 market share in Middle East by 2005. State-of-the-art MP3's showcased at GITEX 2005
Dubai - Speaking from the company's GITEX stand Mr. Kris Lee, Product Director, Consumer Electronics division, Samsung Gulf Electronics said, "Samsung Electronics has set its worldwide MP3 player sales target to over 5 million units this year. By shoring up our digital audio device business, we will grow into the world's top MP3 player vendor by 2007. With the launch of our newest range of unique digital audio players at GITEX this year, Samsung will consolidate and grow its MP3 market share to 24 per cent in Middle East".
"Samsung is already the world's biggest chip maker. We will leverage our dominance in LCD display, chip making and cool-design that our products have come to signify to win market share in Middle East. In 2005 we aim to grow our MP3 business by 100 per cent in the region and we aim to be the leaders by the year 2006," added Lee.
As part of its MP3 strategy Samsung intends to add MPEG playback capability to MP3 players to create new equipment capabilities and standards, to create partnerships with content providers and to create online communities of people that use its players. YP-T8, showcased at the Samsung stand at GITEX will provide the consumers with feature packed MP3 player. Another masterpiece from Samsung is YH-J70, successor to the current YH-925 (20GB) HDD player, this model additionally features MPEG4 playback and 25 Hrs battery life making YH-J70 the best of its kind in the market. EISA Design Award - Best Product in MP3 category.
"Samsung is committed to offering the most innovative, compact and user-friendly line of portable digital audio solutions available on the market today," added Lee, "Samsung's top priority has always been delivering on the wants and needs of our customers, and our newest additions of audio/photo file players offer multi-format and photo viewing capabilities that users have been clamoring for."
On the exponential growth of the MP3 market in UAE, Mr. Makarand Phadke, Sales and Marketing Manager - Consumer Electronics division, SGE, said, "The popularity of MP3 players is increasing in UAE due to the nature of the market and consumers in UAE. This market can be termed as a window market for the middle-east. Information flow, internet usage and multinational populace have ensured that the global trend of shift towards the next generation MP3 Players is reflected in the market scenario in UAE. Consistent need to have the latest electronics gizmos that give consumers cutting edge technology, personal lifestyle and tremendous portability can be summed up as some of the important factors for UAE being the hub of MP3 popularity".
"To expand our leadership position in the market, Samsung plans to enhance the product line-up by focusing on segments beyond flash and hard disk drive categories. Samsung's product strategy will include the launch of customer-oriented digital audio players that target different needs through a diverse array of devices for the premium, fashion and video-enhanced segments," added Makarand.
The other products showcased the event were YM-P1, futuristic Portable Multimedia Player (PMP) model, a fully functional convergence model with audio, video capabilities. YP-D1 MP3 player with 2 MEGA pixels inbuilt camera, YH-J50 successor to the current YH-820 (5GB) HDD player, this model additionally features MPEG4 playback and 25 Hrs battery life making it the best of its kind in the market, YP-T7F successor to YP-T7 with enhanced design and MPEG4 playback and Macromedia user interface, YP-T55, successor to YP-T6 range with additional jog dial function and 30hrs playback time and also the HT-P1200 that has won the EISA design award as the best product in its category.
"Samsung Electronics has set its worldwide MP3 player sales target to over 5 million units this year. By shoring up our digital audio device business, we will grow into the world's top MP3 player vendor by 2007. Samsung Electronics is expanding on the MP3 player concept, which originally was designed for music. The company is developing multi-functional and multimedia products that allow users to play electronic games, watch music videos, movies, view digital photographs and other images," concluded Makarand.
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About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Middle East and Africa (MEA) is headquartered in Dubai. In line with its global vision of 'Digital Convergence,' the company markets its digital devices portfolio through four product divisions: Handheld products (HHP), Information Technology (IT), Home Appliances (HA) and Audio-Visual (AV). Through a network of over 40 distributors, Samsung MEA looks after the distribution of its digital devices across the Middle East and Africa region. With annual revenues in 2004 region reaching US$2.7 billion, the company has also invested in a service subsidiary, located in the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone in Dubai. The 3000-sq.mts-service facility recently completed nine years and is among the largest within the GCC countries.
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