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Samsung continues with its push to capture market share in online smartphone sales with its M Series, which the company claims has sold over two million units since launch.
Asim Warsi, Samsung’s Senior Vice-President, Mobile Business, told BusinessLine that, according to estimates, the business to consumer (B2C) online smartphone market is pegged at about $4.5 billion, of which Samsung wants to consolidate on its market share, which is reaching 25 per cent of the total value.
Samsung has three phones in the M Series line-up — M10, M20, and M30 — and will launch the M40 in June.
“Since its launch in February and March, in this relatively short span of time, the M Series has caught the imagination of online consumers,” said Warsi.
“Our market share to-date is on that similar number of 25 per cent. We have got to maintain and strengthen this in the remaining part of the year,” he said.
He added, “For online, we believe we will double our business this year over last year. We are already on a 2x growth path in online.”
The M Series largely straddles the lucrative and burgeoning segment spanning ₹8,000 and ₹20,000, and the M40 will be around the ₹20,000-mark, Warsi revealed, calling it the “flagship of the M Series”.
India focus
“The ₹15,000-20,000 bracket is a very rapidly growing online segment, estimated to be about a five-million unit segment industry-wise within this year,” Warsi elaborated. Samsung is upbeat about the smartphone market in India, which has a “healthy growth nick”.
Warsi believed that global upheavals or plateauing of the smartphone market in other countries will not affect India. “What is happening globally does not impact us as long as we stay very focussed on recognising that the Indian consumer and market is very different,” said Warsi.
He cited the example of the M Series when it came to building products with an India focus. But he also added that these products aren’t just for India. “From India, it has gone to many other markets in South-East Asia, West Asia, Africa...,” he said.
However, the company did not clarify if these phones are being exported from India to these markets.
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