Samsung ramps up wearable portfolio to support ecosystem

Aims to counter competition from growing number of Chinese smartphones firms

Country's largest smartphone company Samsung India is increasing its devices portfolio with an aim to strengthen the mobile ecosystem that the company is trying to establish for quite some time now.

In its latest attempt to counter competition from growing number of Chinese smartphones firms, the Korean giant has launched a range of smart watches and introduced virtual reality device - first time in India. The moves will help the company stay future ready, Manu Sharma, vice president, marketing, IT and mobile, Samsung India said.

The recent launches come immediate after country's largest watch company - Titan - entering the smart watch market. Chinese smartphone company Lenovo too has come up with its range of smart watches under its brand - Motorola.

According to Counter Point Research, in 2015, some 4,00,000 wearable devices were sold in India. Out of which 25 percent were smart watches. The wearable devices market is expected to grow to 2 million units in 2016.

Samsung, despite being the market leader in the smartphones market in India, has faced stiff competition of late. From Indian handset maker Micromax during the past two years to a fleet of Chinese smartphone companies during the past few quarters. During 2015, Samsung has launched 17 4G LTE devices ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs. 60,000 price band.

The company also came up with a dedicated online team which now looks after its sales, marketing, distribution and new tie-ups for e-commerce - headed by Asim Warsi, its erstwhile mobile and IT head in India. According to estimates, at least 20 percent of smartphones are now sold online in India.

According to Sharma, the latest devices will help Samsung's "smartphone sales positively". Apart from that, Samsung will increase its focus on India centric products and services.

"While, now our R&D center in Noida designs all models for India, features such as ultra-light mode are specially introduced for the market's need here", he added. Samsung recently came up with J-series of smartphones with an option to choose lower internet data consumption mode.