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Samsung's Tizen phones to first ring in India [Tech News] [Times of India](Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) India will likely become the launchpad for Samsung Electronics' own mobile operating system. The Korean major is expected to launch a smartphone that operates on the Tizen operating system (OS) in India within a month, said people with knowledge of its plans. India has never been a launch destination for Samsung, and its plan now to bring the product first to the South Asian nation comes at a time when its leadership position in the local smartphone market is under threat from homegrown brands. According to sources, the phone is likely to have a 4-inch screen and dual SIMs with a 3.2megapixel camera and 512 MB RAM, and is likely to be affordably priced. In India, the affordable segment typically ranges between Rs 5,000 and Rs 15,000. A Samsung spokesperson called the news "market speculation" and didn't comment further. The world's biggest mobile phone maker has been under pressure in India as well as globally because of increasing competition, which has seen its market share shrink. The company posted its smallest quarterly earnings for more than two years during the just ended July-September period. According to data from Gfk, which tracks actual sales and not shipments, Samsung's smartphone market share in India fell to just over 32% in August from around 32.5% in July, but recovered to more than 33% in September, as the company focussed more on selling devices in the affordable segment. Analytical firm Canalys, however, said Samsung lost 6 percentage points sequentially of its smartphone share in India in the third quarter based on shipments, due mainly to stiff competition from local and Chinese players with aggressive pricing strategies. The Korean major disputes the finding. Sector watchers said the company is struggling to maintain its dominance against rivals such as Apple and China's Xiaomi, both of which have created their niche space in the premium and affordable price segments, respectively, in the fast growing Indian market. Competition is also building from local players such as Gurgaon-based Micromax, Samsung's closest rival in the Indian market. Samsung has been looking to reduce its dependence on the dominant Android OS for differentiating it against the market. The reported specifications of the Tizen-based device could put it in direct competition with Google-backed Android One smartphones which the US internet major launched in India a couple of months ago in partnership with Micromax and two other companies. Those products are priced under Rs 7,000. Samsung talked about launching a Tizen phone in mid-2013, but attempts to launch the OS on smartphones through carriers like DoCoMo and Orange didn't bear fruit due to poor market conditions. Yoon Hankil, senior vice-president of Samsung's product strategy team, had said in April. "We have changed our strategy and will release the phones in a few countries where we can do well," he had told Reuters in an interview. In June this year, the company introduced the Samsung Z, an LTE-enabled, Tizen-based smartphone with a 4.8inch HD Super AMOLED display and a 2.3 GHz quad-core processor. It was to be available in the third quarter in Russia, and subsequently in other markets, but no reports of such a launch have emerged so far. Experts said Samsung could find it difficult to convince customers to move from Android devices that have become the mainstream choice for existing and first-time smartphone users to its Tizen-driven devices. India has seen a number of new entrants on different operating systems. Samsung has the market and muscle to afford to have another operating system and it would be an excellent call to price it below Rs 10,000," said Karan Thakkar, IDC's lead telecom analyst. (c) 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited |