Samsung targets Africa growth
With Samsung eclipsing both Nokia and Apple in its latest results, business research and consulting firm, Frost & Sullivan notes the South Korean firm’s targeted plans for growth in Africa.
F&S points out that Samsung’s focus on the smartphone market has paid off. Although Samsung do not release the exact figure of units sold per category, it is estimated that 93.5 million mobile phones were sold, beating ailing Finnish-based giant, Nokia, who shipped 82.7 million units.
Nearly half of Samsung’s shipments were smartphones, 44.5 million, which surpassed tech darling Apple’s 35.1 million units.
Samsung reported a first quarter profit of 5.05 trillion won ($4.45 billion), up 82% from the previous year’s 2.78 trillion won. Sales were up 82% to 45.27 trillion won.
With Samsung set to release their next version of the popular Galaxy S phone in the next month, the group’s impressive record is set to continue, according to F&S.
Samsung’s production of high quality TV’s, and other white goods, has elevated their status in the West as a trusted brand, the consulting firm said.
“Samsung is expected to continue their market domination of the mobile phone market, as the shipment of the Galaxy range continues to yield high returns”, said Frost & Sullivan’s team leader for ICT Africa, Ian Duvenage .
“Significant growth is also expected in China, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa. Samsung recently showed off some of the products specifically designed for Africa, purposely built to deal with the environmental conditions, like the inconsistent power supply experienced in country. In so doing, they are placing high focus on the growth in Africa and serving the needs of clients on the continent.”
The research group said that the released figures leave a few questions on the table, though.
Will the Samsung dominance drive Google to lose control of the Android platform? How will Nokia, running Microsoft, respond, and will their new Lumia 900 have any impact in the market? Will Samsung create their own Android ecosystem? Where will Samsung unlock more value outside of the normal consumer growth sector?
“The fact that Samsung is dominating the market is undisputed, looking at the latest results. But the fact that there is uncertainty in the market regarding the fate of the Android platform, is not good news,” said Frost & Sullivan.
“If the Android platform is split into many fragmented ecosystems, it could be fatal. Any fragment in the market of the platform will challenge developers, customers and enterprises in creating a shared ecosystem,” it continued.
The firm noted that Samsung’s dominance seems to be stable, and Frost & Sullivan expects great future prospects, although they will need to address some of the platform-related questions and decide how this will best serve both the company and the needs of their clients in future.
“If Samsung continue along their current path, and remain as focussed on dominating the smartphone market, they will see an increased dominance in the market for the next foreseeable future,” it said.
“The outstanding performance of their mobile phone division, and performance of their other product categories, will aid them in becoming one of the world’s biggest provider of electronic goods,” concluded F&S.
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