SAMSUNG, a key player in the mobile handset market, finds the youth segment rather significant. It has consistently developed products and activities to tap the youth market, said Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd’s sales and marketing director, mobile phone marketing Alex Wong.

SAMSUNG, a key player in the mobile handset market, finds the youth segment rather significant. It has consistently developed products and activities to tap the youth market, said Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn Bhd’s sales and marketing director, mobile phone marketing Alex Wong.

Samsung understands the passion youths have for music, video and entertainment, he said, and has continuously come up with innovative designs and cutting-edge mobile phones to meet their needs.

“Music is a big part of today’s youth and we are tapping into this segment of the market with products that will enable them to have a better experience with music.

“These phones do not only combine today’s most advanced mobile phone capabilities with cutting-edge multimedia technology but also has features including high megapixel camera, high speed Web connectivity with sleek and trendy designs that appeals to the youth market,” he says.

Its Ultra Music phones such as the SGH-F300 and Ultra Video SGH-F500 and the latest Live Loud Samsung Music Edition mobile phones, namely the SGH-i450, SGH-F330 and SGH-F250, Wong said, are very much in tune with the needs of the young today.

“The Live Loud Samsung Music Edition mobile phones are targeted at consumers who love their music and want to enjoy what they want, when they want it and how they want it,” he adds.

To reach out to the youth market, a series of exciting music events and activities tailored to inspire music enthusiasts is in its planning stages at the moment.

Besides music, Samsung is also seeing blogging capabilities as a must-have application to attract the young. Its latest model SGH-L760 has mobile blogging capabilities.

“Another trend that has become a significant lifestyle among our youths today is blogging and we are enabling it with the SGH-L760.

Embedded with ShoZu software, SGH-L760 lets users seamlessly, reliably, and easily upload their blog contents.

"Whether text, photos or videos, users can experience live blogging on the go,” Wong says.

So significant is this market for Samsung that it has ongoing efforts to reach out to the youth by sponsoring youth icons. Samsung is also heavily involved in sports and gaming which are both influential activities that appeal to the youth market.

Similarly, Motorola has found that music play an important part of youths’ lifestyles.

Motorola Electronics Sdn Bhd Mobile Devices Business head of marketing Zulkifli Mat Jusoh says that they know the youths can’t live without their music.

“Youths have become extremely savvy and know their products in and out. They want to be connected to their music 24/7,” he says.

Additionally, since they are filled with life and zest, there’s also a need to capture their fun-filled moments, hence a camera is needed, he adds.

So Motorola works with its industrial designers and graphic designers to conceptualise new phones based on the latest hype for youths, such as music and trends. For example, Zulkifli says that in 2004, Motorola captured the attention of the youth with the launch of the E398, which came with 3D stereo surround sound dual speakers, a VGA-quality camera with flash, removable memory and Bluetoooth.

Four years later, Motorola introduced the ROKR E8, which can transform from a phone to music player with one touch, and features ModeShift, a technology that only shows the buttons that are needed, be it for a music player, cell phone or imaging device, at the exact moment they need them.