Samsung India to import high-end phones

Despite doubling the capacity of its manufacturing facility in Noida to one million units per month, Samsung Telecommunications will continue to import high-end phones from its facilities abroad.

Samsung Telecommunications India, which handles the mobile phone business presently imports about 25 per cent of its mobile phone requirements in India, though the Noida facility exports to countries in South East Asia and West Asia, Sunil Dutt, country head, mobile business, Samsung said.

Dutt said the mobile phones the company imports for the Indian markets are mostly the feature-rich multi-media phones. In the first phase, Samsung invested $24 million on its mobile phone manufacturing facility in Noida.

The company invested $20 million in the second phase of its expansion which was completed in June this year. Other than Noida, Samsung Telecommunications has manufacturing units in China, Korea and Brazil.

Samsung has so far introduced 40 models in India and intends to launch another nine models in the next three months.

The company, on Wednesday, launched in India Samsung Innov8, a multimedia phone with eight mega pixel camera, cinematic video experience and 32 GB memory. Priced at Rs 45,999, the phone is targetted at the high-end users who want the best possible multimedia entertainment with the mobile phones, said the company.

With this and some new launches the company is planning to announce in near future, Samsung aims to corner a 15 per cent market share in India in the next 8-10 months from the present 8.8 per cent.

Dutt said the company is witnessing a phenomenal growth in rural India, which is more than the market growth. Besides, it is also expanding the distributor network aggressively apart from launching newer models to cover all categories of users.

Samsung Telecommunications is also planning newer models in the CDMA category. Apart from its tie up with service providers like Tata Indicom, Reliance and MTNL, Samsung has so far launched four CDMA models for open market distribution in India.