Samsung prepares move into cheap phones

Reuters.com reports that Samsung plans to "start selling cheap cell phones, making it the last of the top five handset vendors to enter the volume segment of the 816 million units a year market." According to Samsung, the "company would not come out with ultra-cheap handsets priced at $30 or $40, like Motorola, but was looking at slightly higher priced cheap phones that still contain some special features."

Ben Wood at Gartner said "Samsung will have to come up with a cheap phone or see its market share tumble." The article states that "due to its lack of cheap phones, Samsung's market share slipped to 12.1 percent from 12.2 percent in the fourth quarter, while Nokia and Motorola benefited from booming demand for affordable handsets in emerging markets like India."