VENTURES AFRICA- With the launch of the latest Samsung Galaxy S III Smartphone in South Africa last Friday, South Korean mobile phone Company, Samsung, has shown a keen interest in expanding its market frontier in the African technology market.
The global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies has included South Africa and the wider continent as part of its latest push into emerging markets. It plans to dominate the South African Smartphone market and from there spread to other African countries.
While speaking during the launch of the new product, Samsung South Africa’s head of mobile communications, Craig Fleischer, said “The South African market is a unique market. We are the stepping stone into Africa and it’s a very important market for Samsung and we have invested significantly here.”
While aiming to grow alongside expansion in similar global regions, Samsung intends to break through the South Africa Smartphone market despite the fact that 65 percent of South Africa Smartphone users are using BlackBerry device as a result of the prominence of the BlackBerry internet service.
Samsung expects the African market to slowly conform to global trends that it is currently experiencing. The Korean company recently overtook Nokia as the largest manufacturer of mobile phones around the world, with its market share rising to 25.4 percent.
Before the launching of the product, Samsung pre-ordered 50,000 handsets to South Africa, thereby indicating a general change in consumer trends among the middle class across the continent.
At the launching of the Product, Fleischer, asserted that “South Africa and the African continent is a massive focus for Samsung – not only from a mobile phone perspective, but also from a holistic perspective.”
However, to beat competitors at their game, Samsung plans to offer various range of Smartphones to suit all sectors of the public.
“We have our Build for Africa programme where specific devices and units, not only on the mobile device front, but across the range, have been specifically built for Africa for Africans.”
He expressed a strong confidence in the South Africa mobile market, thereby predicting significant grow in the nearest future.
“We have strong confidence from our partners in South Africa, and it will be very interesting to see how the sales look. We predict significant growth for this product,” he said.
Samsung produces a range of consumer devices and Fleisher said that success in South Africa could lead to further penetration into Africa.
Meanwhile, in its quest to expand its market reach across Africa, the tech savvy company has introduced the Samsung Galaxy Pocket, an affordable smartphone, into the Ghanaian market to meet the needs of budget-conscious Ghanaians.
“Galaxy Pocket offers a smartphone experience for even more consumers at an affordable price. As Samsung continues to innovate in the mobile world in 2012, our goal remains to provide consumers with a variety of smart devices designed to fulfill their needs,” Mr. Brovo Kim, Managing Director Samsung Electronics West Africa Ghana Office said.
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