Samsung"s CEO, Lee Kunhee, claims his company will be the world"s largest mobile phone supplier by 2010, overtaking Nokia. Kunhee said that Samsung will outperform its own sales targets this year by 2.5m units and will generate $25bn a year from handsets by 2010.
The company believes it can take advantage of close relationships with operators in the most advanced mobile markets, including its own South Korea, and of the backlash of some large operators, notably Vodafone, against the dominance of Nokia. Vodafone is to work with Samsung and Sharp for its 3G launch. Samsung"s market share has risen from 9.8 per cent last year to 11.2 per cent for the first nine months of 2003, but this is still well behind Nokia"s 34 per cent, which it aims to boost to 40 per cent in the next few months on the back of a raft of new launches.