Samsung, a South Korean electronics giant, is gearing up to announce the Galaxy M-series smartphones in India on January 28. Aimed at Indian millennials, the M-series smartphones would be Amazon-exclusive and would cost less than Rs 20,000. The phones are expected to have a bigger screen, an improved camera and a battery with more capacity.
The M-Series will be powered by a 5,000 mAH battery, feature at least two cameras (the top end model will have three) and sport a 6.2-inch screen. These phones are meant for entertainment, shopping, gaming and multi-tasking, said Asim Warsi senior vice president at Samsung India, according to a news report in the Bloomberg.
The M-series smartphones will rival their Chinese counterparts, especially Xiaomi’s Redmi devices. Samsung lost pole position to Xiaomi, which has beenn leading the Indian smartphone market for over a year now. In the July-September quarter of 2018, the Chinese handset maker managed to capture 27 per cent market share, while Samsung captured 23 per cent, according to a Counterpoint report.
Samsung will continue to boost its offline sales channel, but to target millennials, the upcoming M-series will be available online only. This makes sense, as another report in Counterpoint highlighted that online channels accounted for a record half of all smartphones sales during Indian festive season. During Diwali, three smartphone brands – Xiaomi, Samsung and Realme – captured 57 per cent of the total festive season sales volumes.
During the festive season i.e. October 9 to November 8 in 2018, Xiaomi managed to get 43 per cent share of total sales through online channels. However, Samsung ruled the offline segment with 30 per cent share of the total sales through offline channels. With this analysis, it is expected that the upcoming M-series will target online audience for a reason.
