Samsung hopes to increase its share to 35% in the local mobile handset market this year, helped by the restructuring of distribution channel management. The South Korean handset manufacturer saw 60% growth in its handset revenue in Thailand last year, pushing its market share to 21% from 8%. It sold 1.5 million units with revenue of 5.3 billion baht.

Manatase Annawat, corporate marketing leader of Thai Samsung Electronics Co, said the company was developing its sales channels with a strategy of direct trade without a distributor network.

The goal is to improve distribution efficiency, broaden product access to consumers and avoid price-cutting competition, he said.

The company plans to increase the number of its master hubs to at least 50 and retail partners to more than 200 this year. Mr Manatase said Samsung planned to give a new face to its retail shops and improve product display to create a better retail customer experience.

It is also preparing to introduce a barcode system to identify the sources of its sold handsets in a bid to prevent cross-selling problems.

''We are on the right track now with our direct trade strategy, which brought great success to our mobile business last year,'' he said.

Mr Manatase said Samsung aimed to sell at least 2 million phones in Thailand this year, for a market share of 35%, behind only Nokia, whose share slipped to 43% last year.

But projecting the market could be difficult. He said industry-wide sales volume could grow by 5% or, in the worst case, shrinks 5% from 9 million units last year. The total value is expected to be unchanged after sinking 15% last year in a market worth 35 billion baht.

Overall, low-end products, priced below 4,000 baht, accounted for 77% of industry-wide sales last year. Mr Manatase said Samsung's average handset price had improved to 3,800 baht, compared with 3,100 baht industry-wide.