The mobile phone unit of Samsung Electronics targets to double its share of the Indian GSM mobile phone market and raise it further to 15% by June-July next year

Yesterday, Samsung Mobile has launched an 8 mega-pixel camera phone, 'Samsung Innov8' in the multimedia phone portfolio. The latest launched gizmo also has GPS connectivity, Wi-Fi and 32 GB memory along with mobile internet and gaming capabilities. The mobile handset is available at a price of Rs 45,999.

Samsung Mobile plans to launch another 9 to 10 products by December this year. The company has already launched 31 handset models in the current fiscal in India.

According to the company, India has the second largest market for mobile subscribers after China and from the next billion mobile phone consumers globally, India is expected to contribute 25 crore. The market size for GSM and CDMA mobile phones in India is 10-11 crore in 2008 and will expand to 15 crore by 2010. 

According to the reports of market research firm ORG, Finnish giant Nokia controls nearly 60% of the market for mobile handsets in India, followed by Sony Ericsson with 
8% share and Samsung at 7%. 

Last month, Nokia, the world's biggest cellphone maker, revealed that the company might lose market share in the third quarter, across the globe as it expects the mobile device market in 2008 to be hit by weak consumer confidence.

Further, the Korean company also announced plans to enhance its mobile channel coverage from 55% to 85% of the market by 2008. The firm has also partnered with IFFCO to sell mobile phones through farm input outlets in rural areas. 

In addition, the company is also expanding its mobile after sales service channel by over 60 per cent to provide better after sales support to its consumers.