Luxury phones buck trend

Samsung Electronics has sold more than 100,000 Haptic 2 phones in four weeks, underlining the steady popularity of premium handsets despite an economic slowdown.The surging popularity of Haptic 2 contrasts with the fall in the total sales of handsets amid a slowing economy and reduced subsidies for handset purchasers.Samsung said yesterday that Haptic 2, priced at up to 890,000 won, sells at a faster pace than its hugely popular predecessor Haptic, priced at around 750,000 won. It took five weeks for Haptic to reach the 100,000-mark last year."Upgraded functions and designs that reflect customer needs and high brand recognition appear to be the secret to the popularity of Haptic 2," a Samsung official said.Samsung touts the new handset`s customer-friendly interfaces and features, such as vibration tones that can be designed by users, and up to 50 widget icons that allow users to custom-make their mobile screens.LG Electronics, Korea`s No. 2 handset vendor, also said its premium phones account for 25 percent of its total handset sales."We sell an average of 50,000 handsets per month and 200,000 of them are priced over 600,000 won," an LG Electronics spokesperson said yesterday.SK Telecom, the top mobile carrier, earlier said handsets priced at more than 600,000 won accounted for 21 percent of mobile phones sold last month, up from 2.3 percent in January this year.By contrast, the share of handsets priced at less than 400,000 won went down from 72.7 percent to 42.9 percent during the same period.Choi Moon-sun, an analyst at Korea Investment and Securities, said that the handset is considered a personal necessity in Korea and is less susceptible to economic cycles than other electronics goods.He added, "A handset has become a fashion item. When others buy it, one also wants to buy it." Defying the slowing economy, Samsung and LG have been vying to introduce high-margin premium handsets.The two companies plan to introduce 8 mega-pixel camera phones this year. Samsung will also sell its touch-screen smartphone Omnia in Korea in November.Handset sales stood at 1.5 million in August, falling below the 2 million mark. The fall came after mobile carriers slashed subsidies for new handset buyers to cut marketing costs, industry officials said.In September, sales slightly rose to 1.6 million. Samsung controls 49.6 percent of the market, LG Electronics 27.5 percent and Pantech 17 percent.