Samsung’s presenters display a new model Samsung digital camera, part of a drive by Samsung to achieve 30-per-cent sales growth this year.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung will spend Bt100 million in Thailand this year in an effort to boost sales of its digital cameras by 30 per cent to Bt1.5 billion. If successful the aggressive move would see the company take a 15-per-cent share of Thailand's digital camera market this year, up from 11 per cent last year.

Samsung aims to be the market leader here by the end of next year, with a market share of 20 per cent, said Jay Kwon, the general manager of Samsung Techwin's Asia/CIS Group.

Kwon said Samsung would undertake various promotional activities to reinforce its premium brand and encourage product trials among its targeted end-users, especially in major cities outside Bangkok.

It sees 70 per cent of its total sales coming from Bangkok and the rest from major provincial cities.

Kwon said Samsung presently ranks third in the market for digital cameras, both in Thailand and globally.

It aims to lead the global market next year with sales of 20 million digital cameras.

"To achieve that target, we've spent Bt4 billion over the past 10 years on research and development in digital-camera products, to develop our technology and innovative products to serve customer demand," Kwon said.

Samsung produces all of the parts for its digital cameras and offers more than 50 models.

This year, it plans to launch up to 20 new models in Thailand, including compact digital and digital single lens reflex, or DSLR, cameras.

Kwon said strong growth in demand for digital cameras in Thailand was strong, despite the country's sluggish economy.

"In the long term, customers will save money by using digital instead of film cameras and, as a result, they are happy to buy digital cameras to replace film cameras," he said.

"They are also willing to buy new models of digital cameras to replace old ones," he added.

In Thailand, 800,000 digital cameras were sold last year. That figure is expected to grow to 920,000 units this year. Ninety-five per cent of digital cameras sold will be compact models and the rest DSLR models.

Somluck Srimalee

The Nation