Samsung battles Nokia in smartphones

Samsung is counting on snazzy new products, innovative marketing and vaulting ambition to close the gap on rival Nokia in this lucrative segment.

You might consider him cocky or overly ambitious. But Ranjit Yadav, Samsung India country head of mobile and IT makes no bones of his company’s ambition: “We want to be the number one smart phone player in the country. Our target is to grab 40 per cent market share by the end of this year”.

Nokia, still a market leader

According to the latest quarterly report issued by research firm IDC (International Data Corporation), the global mobile phone market grew by 11.3% year over year, as in second quarter of 2011 were delivered, worldwide, 365.4 million units – compared with 328.4 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2010.

But the figures were below predictions of the company, aimed at an increase of 13.3% for Q2 – lower than the growth of 16.8% recorded in 2011.