Samsung to launch 'Make for India' smartphones as competition from Chinese players increases

With the competition getting fiercer in the Indian smartphone market , Samsung is geared to launch India-focused smartphones across price points in the remaining part of the year, a top company executive has said. [caption id=“attachment_4234815” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] According to Asim Warsi, Global Vice President, **Samsung India** , the company is focusing on multi-dimensional strategies to counter the growing competition, especially from the Chinese players. “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,” Warsi told IANS. The South Korean tech giant brought its flagship Galaxy S9 and S9+ devices to India on 6 March that have several “Make for India” features such as “LTE Carrier Aggregation” to let users stream data 2.5 times faster and company’s own loyalty programme called “Samsung Rewards”. Warsi believes that **Galaxy S9 and S9+** (that will cost Rs 57,900 and Rs 64,900, respectively, for 64GB variants) will help the company further consolidate its leadership in the premium segment. “The kind of response we’ve seen from India towards our devices has been unprecedented so far. We expect the excitement around S9 and S9+ is going to take it to another level,” Warsi said. The devices are going on sale in India from March 16. Samsung has partnered with telecom service providers Reliance Jio and Airtel for “LTE Carrier Aggregation” where spectrum across different bands merge into one single pipe, thus, giving users higher bandwidth, faster streaming and downloads making them the fastest smartphones on 4G networks in India. In 2017, Samsung with 24.7 percent share was the leader in the overall Indian smartphone market, according to the latest numbers from the International Data Corporation (IDC). “We will continue to invest in and focus on channels where consumers seek to engage or buy or own Samsung, whether offline or online. We are present ubiquitously across channels in the country which is core to our channel strategy,” Warsi emphasised. “We will continuously invest and expand our reach not just on the channels’ part but also on expanding the after-sales service network,” Warsi said. Samsung has the largest retail network in the country with over 1,50,000 touch points. When asked about the growing competition from Chinese smartphone players, he said: “We have never seen a phase in the mobile industry where competition was not active. Competition has always been there and that’s the great part of the industry”. The company is also confident of expanding its market share with its core strengths in R&D and innovations. “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 Warsi.