<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>Samsung Electronics unveiled four new smartphone models under its flagship Galaxy line on Wednesday, expanding its offerings of cheaper phones to tap growth in emerging markets.<br><br>Samsung will enter a lower-end market ripe with cut-throat competition from Chinese producers including ZTE Corp and Huawei Technologies, as well as a host of no-brand producers pumping out hundreds of millions of phones for consumers in China, Africa and other developing economies.<br><br>The move also signals an intensifying battle with Apple, Samsung's biggest competitor and customer, as the U.S. firm is set to launch a lower-cost version of the iPhone 4 and its much-anticipated iPhone 5 soon, according to sources.<br><br>"Smartphone makers are increasingly moving down the value chain to target the low-end segment and attract mass customers, especially those in China and India," said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities.<br><br>"It's an inevitable trend but will at the same time lower margins. Only a handful of top-tier manufacturers can survive in that end."<br><br>Samsung forecast on Wednesday cheap models costing below $200 would account for more than half the overall smartphone market by 2015 in volume terms, up sharply from last year's 16 percent.<br><br>"Samsung seeks to expand market share in the emerging market with models costing around $200, as those markets have lower smartphone penetration rates compared with advanced markets," a Samsung group spokeswoman quoted an executive from Samsung Electronics' mobile division as telling a meeting of the group's executives on Wednesday.<br><br><strong>The Heat Is On</strong><br>Apple and Samsung are locked in a bruising patent fight in the United States, Europe and Asia, as they jostle for top title in the smartphone market after ending Nokia's 10-year reign in the second quarter.<br><br>Apple has long stuck to the higher end of a booming mobile device arena, but is now seeking new markets to sustain the rip-roaring pace of growth that has enthralled Wall Street.<br><br>The introduction of cheaper models comes just a day before Samsung goes to a German court to try to overturn a ban on its selling Galaxy tablets in the country.<br><br>Samsung is also awaiting a crucial ruling by a Dutch court on Apple's requests to ban a much wider Galaxy line of products in the Netherlands and European Union.<br><br>Samsung, which is rolling out its latest Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet globally, hopes to raise tablet sales more than five-fold this year and sell 60 million smartphones.<br><br>The Korean firm is the nearest rival to Apple in smartphones and its shipments in the second quarter were just 1 million units short of Apple's 20.3 million unit sales, according to market data.<br><br>Shares in Samsung fell 2.1 percent, versus a 1.2 percent drop in the wider market.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Copycats</strong><br>Samsung expanded its Galaxy smartphone range to five categories spanning the high, mass and low-end segments.<br><br>Its new mid-to-high end Galaxy W will have a 3.7-inch screen and a 5-megapixel camera, while the mid-tier Galaxy M Pro and lower-end Galaxy Y Pro will be Samsung's first Galaxy models with qwerty keyboards.<br><br>The fourth Galaxy Y model, aimed at emerging market consumers, is an entry-level product with a 2-megapixel camera and processor speeds of 832 megahertz (MHz).<br><br>Samsung launched its first Galaxy product in June 2010 and its followup Galaxy S II, launched in April this year, has sold more than 5 million units.<br><br>The new Galaxy lineup, all running on Google's Android platform version 2.3, will be unveiled to the public at an annual electronics fair in Germany in early September.<br><br>The global smartphone market is expected to account for around 64 percent of the total handset market this year in dollar terms, up from 54 percent a year ago, according to industry data.<br><br>Much of that growth is expected to come from lower cost emerging markets, where margins are slimmer and competition is tough.<br><br>Small underground factories that churn out China's grey market cellphones, mostly in Shenzhen, are giving global brands a run for their money.<br><br>As many as 900 million phones a year are produced in Shenzhen, including big brands such as Huawei and ZTE but also lesser-known names like G'five and Daxian , according to industry estimates. Put end to end, those China-made phones could circle the earth at least twice.<br><br>Some 200-300 million of these grey-market handsets are cellphones that are not recognized or licensed by Chinese regulators.<br><br>While feature phones make up much of their output, these cellphone makers are increasingly also producing copycat versions of Apple and Samsung smartphones.<br><br>"Indian ringtones, African languages - we can ask the factory to load up whatever you need," said Xu Shan, who runs a small store in Shenzhen that sells mobile phones from smaller local brands such as Daxian and Jugate.<br><br>(Reuters)</p>