Will exit 2019 with 25% share of $4.5-bn online phone sales: Samsung India

Korean handset major Samsung expects to garner over USD 1.1 billion from online sales of smartphones in 2019, driven majorly by its popular Galaxy M series that was launched earlier this year.

In February, Samsung had launched its India-first 'Galaxy M' series that it sells only through Amazon and its own website. The company had stated that the range would help Samsung clock double-digit growth this year in the hyper-competitive Indian smartphone market.

"The online phone market in India in value terms is about USD 6 billion and of this, consumer segment is about USD 4.5 billion. We aim to exit 2019 with 25 per cent share of the consumer segment," Samsung India Senior Vice-President Mobile Business Asim Warsi told PTI.

He added that the M series - which currently has three devices (M10, 20 and 30) and the new M40 slated to be launched in June - will contribute significantly to this share. Within four months of the launch, Samsung claims to have sold over two million devices in its M-series.

This would translate to sales of well over USD 1.1 billion for Samsung from online channels. Apart from the M series, most of its other smartphones are available across various e-commerce platforms.

Talking about the new M40, Warsi said the device will be priced around Rs 20,000.

The Rs 15,000-20,000 is an important segment of the market and growing at a strong pace and the M40 will further strengthen Samsung's position in this category, he pointed out.

"When we had announced the M series, we had said our intent was to double our smartphone business (in value terms) this year and we are in a good position to achieve more than 2X growth," he said.

Warsi said the company is confident of a "healthy double-digit growth" this year even though the industry is expected to grow at 6-8 per cent in the country.

Reports from other research organisations such as IDC and Counterpoint have positioned China's Xiaomi to be ahead of Samsung (in terms of units shipped) for many quarters now, while Samsung cites GfK data.

According to IDC, Xiaomi shipped 9.8 million units in the January-March 2019 quarter, compared to Samsung's 7.2 million units. Overall smartphone shipment in the country during the said quarter stood at 32.1 million units.