Samsung Eyes $4 Billion Revenue In India From A Series Phones For 2019

Samsung is targeting a revenue of $4 billion in India for this calendar year from its Galaxy A Series smartphone line-up.

The company said three phones — A10, A30 and A50 which were launched in March — have already sold two million units and generated $500 million in revenue.

Ranjivjit Singh, Senior Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung India, said generating this revenue in 40 days gives Samsung the confidence to look even beyond $4 billion for 2019.

All the A Series phones are made in India and Samsung is planning to export a certain share of smartphone production from India by 2020. As on date, Samsung does not export smartphones from India. However, by 2020, it aims to export 30 percent of its production in volume terms from India.

Across the spectrum

Singh also said that with the A Series, the company is looking at maintaining its presence across price points — from below Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000.

“Depending on which consumer is looking for what kind of experience, they are able to choose from within Samsung’s range or portfolio,” Singh said.

This sums up Samsung’s market strategy. “It is not about playing a niche game in one segment, but serving consumer needs across the spectrum of what they are looking for,” Singh elaborated.

The company had earlier announced that it would launch new products in the A Series every month from March to June.

Line-up of launches

Next week, Samsung will introduce the A70, an offering in the ‘value segment’ priced below ₹30,000.

In May, it will launch its flaghsip-approaching A80, which will be priced between ₹45,000 and ₹50,000 and will be powered by a Snapdragon 730 chipset.

Singh further revealed that this phone will be optimized for gaming and will come with a rotating camera.

Entry-level segment

However, the company is also targeting the opposite end of the price spectrum as it started shipping out the Galaxy A2 Core last week.

At Rs. 5,290, this entry-level smartphone will take on Xiaomi’s Redmi Go and aims to capture a chunk of the feature phone market pie.

“A Samsung Galaxy can be the first smartphone for a millenial. There are 400 million to 500 million feature phone users. It opens up huge volume possibilities,” Singh said.

Samsung will look at both online and offline channels for sales. It currently claims that it has a retail distribution width of 1,80,000, including about 2,000 branded stores, and recently sold its M Series of smartphones on Amazon. It also has over 3,000 service centres across the country and 535 service vans for remote and rural areas.―The Hindu Business Line