"As far as the handset market is concerned, we expect both the essential mobile phone segment as well as the multimedia segment to show a good growth this year, with the Tier II and Tier III cities showing a strong consumption of entry level handsets."

In 2008, around 110 million mobile subscribers were added and this year we expect the subscription base to grow by 130 million. As far as the handset market is concerned, we expect both the essential mobile phone segment as well as the multimedia segment to show a good growth this year, with the Tier II and Tier III cities showing a strong consumption of entry level handsets. The handset market is estimated to be about 120 to 125 million in 2009.

On the growth drivers of the Indian mobile phones market

The growth drivers for the Indian mobile market are:

• Growing rural penetration
• New operators like Reliance entering the GSM market. They will be launching services in smaller Tier II and Tier III markets which should fuel mobile penetration.
• We also expect that once the economy shows some signs of revival and the consumer sentiment starts to pick up, it should have a positive rub off on mobile handset sales. The replacement market too will get a boost, which should see the mid segment in mobiles getting a boost.
• 3G services when they are launched in the country will definitely fuel demand.

On the USP of your products (including after sales services provided)

We have set up a widespread after-sales service network to support our mobile handset sales all over the country. We have a network of around 400 service centers for mobile phones all over the country including the company's authorized service centers and dealer service centers. In addition, we have 30 swap centers, 4 L4 centers for repairs; Global Parts Center at Noida, and 3 Regional Parts centers with multiple billing locations to facilitate easy spare parts availability.

We also have tech consultation on mobiles available all 6 days of the week for consumers wishing to resolve their issues on the phone.

At Samsung, we have a portfolio of over 45 mobile handsets across the entry level Guru series, multimedia segment, business phones, touch screen phones like TouchWiz, and the Super phone category including Omnia and Innov8. In 2009, we will be strengthening the product line up across all the mobile phone segments.

On market, technology, and price trends in the mobile phone market in India

The handset market in India would be around 105 million units as of 2008, and we expect the market to grow by a little over 10 percent. As far as new technology introductions are concerned, 2008 was marked by the introduction of touch screen technology and also saw dual sim phone category showing very encouraging growth. In 2009, we expect 3G technology to gain ground post its introduction.

On the effect of the continued economic slowdown on the mobile phones market

As far as the domestic mobile industry is concerned, growth at the entry level is still healthy with smaller semi-urban markets showing good adoption of mobile handsets. The overall consumer sentiment had been impacted in the urban centers in the months of November-December. However, from January onward, we do observe a pick up in the market.