Samsung Mobile India, a division of the $116.8 billion Samsung Electronics, is the second largest selling handset manufacturer worldwide. As per a recent study by Gartner, its mobile phone sales touched 71.7 million in the third quarter of 2010. Samsung?s smartphone market share reached 10% in the third quarter of 2010. It sold close to one million Bada devices in the same period and 6.6 million Android phones making it the top Android seller. The company has recently made an aggressive entry into the smartphone and dual sim handset market. Ranjit Yadav, director, mobile & IT biz, Samsung Electronics India, spoke to FE?s Nikita Upadhyay on the company?s growing focus on innovation, product differentiation and customisation to tackle competition.

Why this renewed focus on the smartphone segment?

India is a priority market for us. Our intention is to garner about 40% market share in the smartphone segment in India. Currently, the smartphone market in India is at a very nascent stage. The country has low broadband penetration and the demand for getting connected through the internet is huge. India already has about more than 600 million mobile connections. Various research reports also point out that the mobile will be the first platform for internet experience. This year, the smartphone contribution to our total mobile volumes will be around 5%. The total smartphone market in India is estimated at 2.5 million units in 2010.

Will you focus more on the Android platform or promote Bada for smartphones?

Samsung is a full range provider of the mobile space and we offer handsets from Rs 1,400 to Rs 38,000. Last year, our market share was in single digits, but this year, it?s 18.4% in volume and 21.5% in value terms. The last quarter saw significant traction for us. We are working aggressively on the Android platform. We have also launched the Wave series on our Bada operating system. With these, we also have the Windows phone and will continue to offer them as we have done in the past.

How will Galaxy Tablet redefine the smartphone market? What are your expectations from this device?

The Galaxy Tablet brings PC-like web-browsing experience and multimedia content on 7-inch TFT-LCD display screen. More than one lakh Android market applications are accessible on the Galaxy Tab which will offer consumers huge scope for customising their Galaxy Tab as per their needs. We feel the demand for tablets is poised to grow phenomenally and touch one million users by 2011 end and we expect to capture 40% of this market with the Galaxy tablet. Leading Indian operators such as Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, Tata Docomo and Reliance Communications will be announcing exciting offers and data plans with the Galaxy Tab very soon.

How do you see 3G fuelling the handset growth in India?

3G will fuel the handset demand in India. We are poised for next inflection point to get connected. One of our key focus is on consumers and we introduce on an average 4-5 products a month. We have already launched a series of 3G enabled handsets. 3G will also open up a huge demand to upgrade and renew existing handsets which is again a huge opportunity for us.

How does the Indian manufacturing unit and R&D centre help?

Our manufacturing facility for mobiles is located at Noida .We have a capacity of one million units per month. In terms of our R&D manpower across our Noida and Bangalore R&D centres, we have a manpower of close to 5,000 employees. For example, our Samsung Electronics India Software Operations (SISO) R&D centre is working in the areas of smartphone platform, solutions and product development as well as embedded software for semiconductors and memories.

With urban markets over penetrated, do you see growth in rural areas?

Although urban markets are saturated, there is still a lot of demand for handset upgrade as the average life-cycle of a handset has become less than two years. Our Guru Power and Guru Solar targets our rural customers. Also our dual sim handset offering is a move to address genuine consumer demand in the market.