SAO PAULO, Brazil-Samsung in mid-March opened its first manufacturing operations for cellular handsets outside of South Korea. The company began manufacturing a CDMA handset for the Brazil market in Manaus, in the northern state of Amazonas, where Samsung has manufactured other consumer products such as TVs and VCRs since 1995.
Samsung will make the SCH-411 CDMA handset, which has voice recognition and will retail for about US$555. In the future, the company also may manufacture the SCH-811 CDMA handset at the factory. The SCH-811 is a higher-end model with a personal organizer. The facility has the capacity to put out 400,000 handsets per year, according to a Samsung spokeswoman.
Doo Young Yoo, president of Samsung Eletronica da Amazonia Ltda., said the initial production units likely will go to Telefonica, which is the operating partner in Tele Sudeste Celular, a CDMA operator. Its other CDMA handset customers are Telesp Celular Participacoes S.A. and Global Telecom S.A., said Yoo.
Samsung also eventually may manufacture its CDMA-based wireless local loop system, currently being tested in China, at the Manaus factory. It also intends to export equipment made there to the other Mercocur countries and the rest of South America, according to Yoo.
