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Gung-ho about the prospects of the smartphone market worldwide, Samsung has jacked up global sales target to 25 million for this year and is also betting big on India by launching a slew of phones, including three new Wave handsets based on its Bada platform along with the Omnia 652.

The Samsung Wave series, that includes the 525, 533, 723 models, and Omnia 652 carry a price tag of Rs 8,800, Rs 9,900, Rs 13,500 and Rs 10,600 respectively in the country.

Samsung Wave 525

The Wave devices come with 3.2 inch WQVGA TFT displays but a 100 MB internal memory. However, they also have a free 2 GB microSD card and support expandable memory of up to 16 GB.

Meanwhile, the Samsung Omnia 652 operates on Windows 6.5 and comes with ActiveSync, which gives complete access to business push e-mail. It also allows users to organise their personal e-mails on Yahoo and Windows Live.

Already installed with the Microsoft Office 2010, phone users can view and edit PowerPoint presentations and create, view or edit Word and Excel documents. It has a QWERTY keypad, customisable homescreens and online widget support. This 3G (HSDPA) compatible device also has a video telephony camera.

The Samsung Omnia 652 integrates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, GPS and Internet Explorer 6. The handset has a 2.0 megapixel camera, YouTube Apps, Sound Alive, up to 16 GB of additional storage support and a 3.5 pi audio ear jack. The Omnia 652 has a 1,500 mAH battery that can provide a talk time of 12 hours and 600 hours standby time on 2G networks along with up to 7.3 hours talk time and 441 hours standby time on 3G.

The Omnia 652

Ranjit Yadav, country head – mobile and IT, Samsung India, said, “The new smartphones reinforce our company’s commitment towards beefing up the smartphone experience in India. The use of different platforms for our smartphones is primarily designed to give consumers a choice and provide them with a rich, connected mobile experience based on applications, content and entertainment.”

Competition in the Indian smartphone market has become so intense with a litany of rollouts that Samsung had to halve prices recently in order to stay in the fray.

An entry-level smartphone in India comes for about Rs 6,500 as compared to Rs 12,000 last year. And smartphone makers, including Nokia, Samsung, LG, Dell, BlackBerry and HTC say prices are likely to plummet further as more and more people flock for these handsets and also with the 3G juggernaut rolling out. The 3G technology will pave the way for high-speed and seamless videos as well as internet on handsets.

Samsung’s strategy to connect with the youth with its colourful Corby series of phones, which had a slew of social networking features, along with its advertisement that stressed on the power of the youth, had paid off handsomely, helping the company register substantial earnings.

Even in India’s smarphone market, Samsung is a dominant player and offers the widest variety in this category, much more than rivals Nokia and even BlackBerry (which mainly caters to the high-end variety). With its strategy to flood this segment with more handsets like the Samsung Wave 525, 533, 723 and Omnia 652, the Korean giant could look forward to retaining its dominant position in the Indian market.