Samsung, South Korea's electronics giant, expects its notebook PC shipments, buoyed by the ever-galloping local market, to double this year.

"We aim to sell 100,000 notebook PCs in China this year," Zhang Jian, sales director responsible for Samsung Electronics' notebook PC business in China, told China Business Weekly.

The goal is attainable, as Samsung, a latecomer to China's notebook PC market, has gained significant clout in the local market, Zhang said.

The company, which entered China's laptop market in October 2001, sold about 50,000 laptops in the country last year.

Notebook PC shipments in China increased nearly one-third, year-on-year, in 2002, to reach 973,000 units, indicates research house IDC.

CCW Research, a Beijing-based data-tracking firm, put the figure at 887,000 units, a whopping 48.8-per-cent growth year-on-year.

Notebook PC shipments reached 563,600 units in the year's first half, CCW Research's statistics indicate.

A well-established brand image in the consumer electronics business will help Samsung gain more traction in China's notebook PC market, Yang Bing, sales director of Beijing Capital Group Electronic Technology Co Ltd, said.

Beijing Capital is the sales agent of Samsung's notebook PCs in the Chinese mainland.

"We hope to build Samsung into one of the top three brands in China's notebook PC market in 2005-06," Yang told China Business Weekly.

"The goal is quite challenging, but it is attainable, as Samsung knows Chinese people's buying behaviour (compared with other foreign rivals)."

Samsung has been playing catch-up with many US and European giants in various businesses with a combination of innovative designs, cutting-edge technologies and aggressive marketing.

The company last year vaulted into the No 3 position in the world's handset market, from No 6 in 2000. It now poses a formidable challenge to market leaders Nokia and Motorola.

Samsung is already the world's largest memory chip maker, and the firm has made a big mark in the digital media business.

Yang hopes those successes will carry over into the notebook PC market.

Samsung views Toshiba, Dell and IBM as its major rivals in China's notebook PC market, and it hopes to overtake them, Yang said.

China's Legend Group, Founder, IBM, Toshiba and Dell held a combined 65 per cent share of China's laptop market in the year's first half, indicates CCW Research.

Samsung will ride the Centrino technology wave in China to expand its market share, Yang said.

Centrino chips, introduced in March by semiconductor giant Intel, are characterized by wireless broadband Internet connection and low power consumption.

"We believe Centrino will become a mainstream technology in China next year, which is expected to boost Samsung's sales," Yang said.

Samsung was the first notebook PC maker in China to embrace Centrino technology.

"The tie-up with Centrino technology has significantly boosted Samsung's brand image in the market," Zhang said.

About 80 per cent of the notebook PCs produced by Samsung will be equipped with Centrino technology, Yang said.

Increasing localization is expected to help Samsung expand its footing in China, he suggested.

Samsung announced in September it planned to move most of its PC manufacturing operations, including laptop production lines, from South Korea to China by 2005 to cut costs.

The company already has manufacturing facilities in Suzhou, a city near Shanghai.

"Since last June, more than half of Samsung's notebook PCs have been produced in Suzhou," Zhang said.

Close to 10 million notebook PCs are manufactured in China annually, accounting for one-fourth of the world's notebook PC output, industry statistics indicate.

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