Samsung plans to launch India-focused smartphones "to counter growing competition"
In an attempt to quell the competition, Samsung is planning to launch smartphones that are India-focused and across various segments in the country's price-sensitive phone market, for the remaining part of the year. The decision comes on the backdrop of recent market reports saying Xiaomi had toppled the Korean smartphone manufacturer to become India's number one smartphone vendor in Q4 2017.
Samsung to focus on multi-dimensional strategies to counter competition
"You can expect multiple devices being launched over the year across price segments that we operate in. These smartphones will be available across online and offline channels from time to time," said Asim Warsi, Global Vice President, Samsung India to IANS.
'Made for India' features introduced with the S9 and S9+
With Galaxy S9 and S9+ devices, Samsung is introducing "Made for India" features such as "LTE Carrier Aggregation" that will allow users to stream data 2.5 times faster and "Samsung Rewards" - company's own loyalty programme. Asim Warsi believes that the S9 and S9+ (starting at Rs. 57,900 and Rs. 64,900 respectively) will help the company further consolidate its leadership in the premium segment.
LTE Carrier Aggregation: What is it?
Samsung has partnered with Reliance Jio and Airtel for "LTE Carrier Aggregation" wherein spectrum across different bands are merged to form one single pipe. This will offer users access to a higher bandwidth and allow for faster downloads and streaming to ultimately make S9 and S9+ the fastest 4G smartphones on Indian networks.
R&D to focus on 'Make for India'
"We invest $14 billion in R&D globally and have five global R&D centres based in India. There are two manufacturing operations as well through which, we are always trying to keep ourselves ahead of the curve in R&D towards 'Make for India'," said Asim Warsi.
Samsung dominates the India Smartphone market, now plans to sustain
Samsung also plans to continuously invest and expand its channel's reach and even expand its after-sales service network, given the company's market share in India. As per IDC, for the year 2017, Samsung dominated the overall Indian smartphone market with a 24.7 percent share. And those numbers make sense given the Korean-firm has the largest retail network in India with over 150,000 touch points.
