Last month, Samsung launched a new smartphone, Rex, to complement its high-end Galaxy series in a bid to regain the market share that it has been steadily losing in the Indian market.<\/p>\n
Samsung, though still the market leader, has been fighting competition from local Indian manufacturers such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava on one border and foreign players like Apple and Nokia on another.<\/p>\n
Its market share in value terms fell from 47.4 per cent in July to 43.3 per cent in December last year, according to a recent market study by a research firm. <\/p>\n
In volume terms, too, its share slid from 46.4 per cent in July to 35.8 per cent in December. The foremost challenger to Samsung has been the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia. Its Asha series of smartphones launched last year was quick to upset the market balance. <\/p>\n
During the fourth quarter of 2012, Nokia sold 16 million Asha phones globally. In India, the Asha 305, priced at Rs 5,029, became the best-selling model during the period. <\/p>\n
The company is banking on its Asha series to fire up sales at the bottom of the pyramid, and plans to launch two more models in the entry segment soon. <\/p>\n
However, opinion is divided on whether Asha phones can truly qualify as a smartphone. Many believe that the Asha series is a feature-packed phone that falls short of being a smartphone and, therefore, should not be clubbed with other smartphones when arriving at the market share of various players.<\/p>\n
Nokia, meanwhile, is also pushing its Lumia series of phones. \u201cIn a little over a year, we have introduced 10 Lumia devices, each at a new price point, each delivering an uncompromised Lumia experience. <\/p>\n
Of these, eight are already in the market,\u201d says Vipul Mehrotra, director (smart devices), Nokia India.<\/p>\n
The company is also planning to bring more Lumia models at even lower price points. \u201cWe are working closely with Microsoft to offer Nokia Lumia devices at newer price points, thereby offering the Windows Phone and Lumia experience to newer consumers,\u201d says Mehrotra.<\/p>\n
Another blow was dealt to Samsung with the launch of Apple\u2019s iPhone 5 in November. Apple has been pushing its products through attractive bundled as well as monthly instalment offers, which have helped the company double its market share to about two per cent in December from less than one per cent (estimated) in July, according to a recent study by an independent market research firm. <\/p>\n
Apple also fuelled growth by cutting price of its earlier versions of the iPhone models to push sales. In value terms, too, Apple\u2019s share has doubled to 6.7 per cent in December 2012 from 3.3 per cent in July.<\/p>\n
Amid this, Indian players like Micromax, Karbonn and Lava, among others, have also emerged as serious contenders by playing the price game and meeting the aspirational needs of the Indian consumers.<\/p>\n
Its warhorse will be the new phone, Rex. Samsung\u2019s Rex, priced between Rs 4,280 and Rs 6,490, will directly compete the initial four models of Nokia\u2019s Asha series. At the top end of the market, Samsung is trying to push its Galaxy series.<\/p>\n
Besides its key purpose of fending off competition from Nokia\u2019s Asha series, there is another reason why Samsung launched the Rex series. <\/p>\n
According to the study cited above, about 40 per cent of the smartphones sold in urban India (cities with a population of more than 50,000) in December 2012, were priced below Rs 7,000. <\/p>\n
The share of smartphones in the range of Rs 8,000 and Rs 12,000 was 24.5 per cent and for phones prices above Rs 20,000 was just 10.7 per cent. After the launch of Rex, analysts expect the Korean major to report better numbers this quarter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last month, Samsung launched a new smartphone, Rex, to complement its high-end Galaxy series in a bid to regain the market share that it has been steadily losing in the Indian market. Samsung, though still the market leader, has been fighting competition from local Indian manufacturers such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava on one border […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}