NEW DELHI, May 1: Samsung Electronics plans to invest $6 million to grow its mobile handsets business in India, aiming to capture the top slot in one of the world’s hottest mobile markets by the end of 2003, officials said on Wednesday.

Samsung Electronics India Information and Telecommunication Ltd, a wholly-owned unit of the South Korean giant, which began operations in May 2000, had a 22 per cent market share at the end of 2001 in India’s mobile handset business.

“We are now looking at a 30 per cent market share in 2002 and aiming to become No.1 in 2003,” Shashin Devsare, senior manager, telecom, at Samsung’s Indian unit which also sells colour monitors, computer hard drives and printers, told reporters.

Samsung, which sold 80,000 mobile phones in India in 2001, ranks behind Nokia, the world’s No.1 mobile handset maker.

Samsung hopes to sell up to 330,000 phones in 2002, about a third of 1.1 million expected to be sold in India in the year.

India’s legal mobile handset market is very small — more than three-fourths of phone sales are accounted for by the “grey” or the smuggled goods market.

Import duties and local taxes have spawned the huge illegal market where prices can be up to 30 per cent cheaper and where new models often come in much before they are officially launched by companies.

Samsung, citing data released by handset makers’ body Indian Cellular Association, said some 4.4 million handsets were expected to be sold in 2002, of which 3.3 million would be sold in the grey market.—Reuters