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Samsung's new flagship smartphone Wave - Source: Reuters
Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson unveiled their new top
smartphone models, both hoping to improve their positions in the
more lucrative part of the phone market.
Samsung, the world No 2 handset maker, unveiled its flagship
smartphone model Wave - using a new touch screen technology and the
first phone to use its bada operating system.
"Samsung's commitment to Bada is underlined by the fact that it is
using it to power its flagship product for the show but it's going
to be an uphill struggle to get the developer community on board,"
said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight.
Earlier this month Samsung unveiled a plan to treble smartphone
shipments in 2010 and promote its own bada software platform.
Analysts, however, have been doubtful of Samsung's efforts to
belatedly build a new open platform.
With limited volume, phones using bada will have difficulty
attracting application developers or operator support.
Samsung said it plans to launch five to seven phone models using
bada software in 2010.
Samsung and Sony Ericsson have seen consumers seeking Web and other
PC-like functions increasingly turning away from their feature
phones to computer-like smartphones from top vendors Nokia, Apple
and Research In Motion.
Samsung's smartphones market was just 3.3% last year, compared to
around 20% stake it has of overall handset market.
Sony Ericsson's share of the smartphone market is even
smaller.
JK Shin, the head of Samsung's mobile operations, said that with
the help of bada - which can be used also in cheaper models - the
company would benefit from surging demand for new smartphones in
emerging markets.
"I believe that the smartphone market will grow more than 20% every
year for a three-year time frame, and the growth rate in emerging
markets is much higher than that of advanced countries," he said in
an interview.
The world's fourth-largest phone maker Sony Ericsson, which has
reported seven straight quarterly losses, unveiled three smartphone
models, using Google's Android operating system in two of them, and
Nokia's Symbian in one.
"Some of the obituaries that have been written on Sony Ericsson may
be a little premature. There is no doubt the company still has
challenges but these new products are a first step to help fuel a
recovery," CCS's Wood said.
