In 1990-00, Samsung Electronics India witnessed a whopping 133 percent growth in its business in India. It was renamed as Samsung Electronics India Ltd this fiscal.

It was converted into a wholly owned subsidiary in May this year. The step was motivated by the tremendous expansion of the Korean major’s business in India and the inadequacy of the liaison office to cope.

It did good business in all areas of its operation. It sold 5,100 CDMA handsets and 20,000 GSM phones netting a revenue of Rs 10.49 crore and Rs 30.80 crore respectively. Interestingly, a major portion of its business (Rs 27.36 crore) came from its optical fibre business. Besides, Key Telephone Systems (KTS) and facsimile machines returned a revenue of Rs 4.05 crore and Rs 8.45 crore respectively.

Samsung mobile handset business picked up with the introduction of its SGH 600 GSM handsets in October. The handset is directed at the high-end of the market. The availability of the same handsets in the gray market at a far lower price effected its business in a major way. However, the gray market predominance was checked to some extent when the price of the SGH 600 model was brought down.

In the facsimile segment, Samsung cornered a market share of 7 percent. Most of the business in facsimile segment came from its SF 3100 model. Besides it also launched six-in-one multi-functional device in this segment.