PARIS - SOUTH Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics said
on Monday that it hoped to regain its number one spot by value in
the French mobile phone handset market from Apple by September this
year.
Samsung remains first in terms of volume, taking 39 per cent of
the market with 4.5 million phones sold, David Eberle, the head of
Samsung's French operations, told AFP.
However, with the boom in smartphones, which allow users to
connect to the Internet while on the move, Apple's iconic iPhone
has helped it to top spot in terms of value, with 26 per cent to
Samsung's 25 per cent.
From 2006 to 2009, Samsung led the market on both volume and
value measures, but the company slipped behind in smartphones and
in February it accordingly announced it would introduce some 15 new
models this year alone to make up lost ground.
Market research house Gfk says one in every four mobile phones
now sold in France is a smartphone.
Samsung last month launched smartphones using its own operating
system and this week starts selling its Galaxy S model, which uses
Google's Android operating system in a direct challenge to the
iPhone. -- AFP