Samsung eyes 15 pct of Indian mobile handset market

BANGALORE Oct 1 (Reuters) - The mobile phone unit of Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) plans to increase its share of India's handset market to 15 percent by mid-2009 from about 9 percent now, the head of its India operations said on Wednesday.

The company plans to launch nine new models in India by the end of this year to add to its range of 40, Sunil Dutt told reporters.

India, with nearly 300 million mobile users, is the second-largest wireless market in the world after China, and still has the potential for further huge growth as just over a quarter of its population have cellphones now. (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by John Mair)