Samsung Electronics Co., the world's No. 2 mobile phone maker, said Wednesday it has launched the Galaxy S smartphone in China, with the aim of taking the top spot in the country's mobile phone market.
Samsung Electronics hopes its Android-powered Galaxy S model will help it overtake its bigger rival Nokia Corp. in the world's most populous country.
The South Korean electronics maker currently holds a 25 percent market share of the Chinese handset market, coming in second to Nokia, which has been dominating the market with a 40 percent share.
In June, Samsung launched the Galaxy S first in its home turf of South Korea, in a move to gain a stronger footing in the lucrative smartphone
segment, currently dominated by Apple Inc.'s iPhone.
Samsung officials said the company is targeting the high-income bracket in China with the newly launched smartphone Galaxy S series.
In the United States, the Galaxy S is enjoying steady sales, breaking 1 million units in less than 60 days after its release in July, while sales in South Korea have surpassed the total sales of the iPhone.
According to the New York-based marketing researcher Nielsen Company last month, China is the world's largest mobile device market, with a total of 755 million mobile subscribers in China, which is more than half of the country's population.
The research firm said despite less advanced networks, more mobile consumers in China use handsets to access the Internet, compared to their
U.S. counterparts. Compared to 27 percent of the U.S. mobile subscribers, 38 percent of Chinese mobile subscribers use the Internet on mobile phones.