Chennai, April 28 (IANS) The Indian subsidiary of South Korean consumer durables major Samsung is targeting a 40 percent market share in the growing smartphone segment, a senior official said Wednesday.

"We are aiming a market share of 40 percent this year. Our current market share is 15 percent. Last year the Indian market size for smartphones was around 2.5 million units and this year it is expected to be around eight million units," Country Manager for mobile and IT Ranjit Yadav told reporters here.

Yadav was here to launch "Nexus S", a smartphone model developed in partnership with Google, and five new models of Galaxy phones.

On the projected jump in market size from 2.5 million units to eight million, Yadav said: "The launch of 3G mobile phone services by most mobile telephony service providers will fuel the growth of smart phones. Further, the mobile phones will increase the broadband penetration."

According to him, the slew of launches on the Android platform is to provide customers a smarter and simpler phone.