Samsung offers smartphone for everyone :Ranjit Yadav, Country Head, Samsung Mobile and IT

The year 2011 has been a very big year for Samsung. The Korean giant turned the tables with its smashing Samsung Galaxy S2 and if the news of the Samsung galaxy S3 are true, the year 2012 will be even bigger and better. According to a leaked Samsung roadmap by Into Mobile's, we are looking to see a Windows Phone 7 Mango, two tablets and a Android Ice Cream Sandwich device widely rumored to be Google’s Nexus Prime this year. It is quite likely that some of the products from this lineup will be unveiled at the upcoming Samsung unpacked event in Berlin on September 1.

The popular multinational conglomerate corporation recently launched 3 latest dual SIM mobile phones in the Indian market. Dubbed as Star II Duos, Metro DUOS and Metro 3752 the new mobile phones, take the tally of Samsung India's dual-SIM handsets in the country to 14. Earlier this month, Samsung launched Galaxy Tab 750 and Tab 730 in India bringing in best of both class, impressive specs and functionality to the Indian tablet lovers.

Know Your Mobile caught up with Country Head, Samsung Mobile and  IT, Ranjit Yadav to talk about the changing tablet market, faith in Android platform, focus for 2011 and more.

KYM IN: With so many tablets being launched in India, both by domestic and international player, how does Samsung plan to fortify its position in this segment?
 
Ranjit Yadav (RY): Looking at the Indian market and how it has evolved, tablets have emerged as converged devices that hinges on creating a unique user experience that would change the lifestyle of the Indian consumer. Analysts have predicted the global tablets users are expected to increase from 20 million in 2010 to over 400 million in 2014.
 
With the market of tablets set to strengthen, Samsung has already seen success with its Galaxy Tab globally since its launch last year and is further targeting a 50% market share of the Indian tablet market by 2011 end.

With this kind of growth surging in the tablet market Samsung has kept the consumer demand and expectations in mind and has launched its power house variants, Galaxy Tablet 750 and 730 measuring just 8.6 millimeters which are 3G devices. The GALAXY Tab 750 and 730 feature Samsung’s own TouchWiz user interface implemented on the Android™ 3.1 (Honeycomb) platforms, offering faster and smoother transitions between different applications.
 
The new tab variants offer a greater plethora of applications to enrich the consumer experience on the Galaxy tablet including India specific apps like My Reader app and Mobile TV apps. My reader app gives Indian consumers access to 17 Indian newspapers, 17 Indian Magazines and 30,000 Indian language books and the Mobile TV application on the Samsung tablets gives consumers access to 55 Indian television channels.
 
KYM IN: What is your outlook on the Indian mobile smartphone market?
 
RY: Samsung pioneered the ‘democratization of the smartphone market’ in India by offering a “smartphone for everyone”. We are making smartphones available at different price points with rich features thereby providing our customers with more choices – in terms of handsets, prices, applications and the platform that best suits their needs. We have a range of 15 smart phones in the market across the Android platform as well as our own proprietary OS , bada. All our smartphones offer a strong value proposition at their respective price points.
 
KYM IN: Samsung is big on the Android. What prompts the company's faith in the platform?
 
RY: While samsung currently offers 10 Android smartphone, in the India market, at same time we follow a multi-platform strategy. This means we are focusing on open OS mobiles since many key characteristics of smartphones are becoming more and more relevant - especially mobile internet, messaging features, strong third party applications and flexibility for customization. In the open OS area, our strategy is to offer superlative consumer experience and proving our consumers with whatever they want. As a result we are offering mobiles based on the Android, Windows and our own proprietary OS bada in the Indian market.
 
We will continue to explore the Android OS for both our smartphone and converged devices range - recent example being the launch of Galaxy SII and the Galaxy Tab 750 and 730 on the Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) OS.
 
KYM IN: What is the focus for 2011?

RY: In the year 2011, we are focusing on further expanding our smartphone portfolio across the bada, Android and Windows platforms and plan to notch up a 40% market share of the smartphone segment.
Also, we have seen a huge success with our recently launched Samsung Galaxy SII in the smartphone market as it delivers a superlative and an unmatched smartphones experience and this model is expected to give the company a 20% volume growth in smartphone sales month-over-month. Globally Galaxy SII has reached global channel sales of 5 million units.