'Commoditizing fast-growing segments can hamper smartphone growth’

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : New Delhi: In a sluggish consumer electronics market, the key to boosting smartphone sales is to steer clear of cookie-cutter experiences for buyers and, instead, enhance value-addition in mid-segment devices, Raju Pullan, senior vice-president and head of Samsung India’s mobile experience business, said in an interview. According to Pullan, Samsung is targetting non-urban markets, and enhancing value of the smartphones priced below ₹50,000 to drive growth despite the challenges. “Upgrades are happening from ₹15,000 to the ₹30,000 price bracket, and from ₹30,000 to the ₹50,000 range.

The latter is the fastest-growing price segment in India’s smartphone industry, with the average (year-on-year) growth in shipments at 65% in 2023. Samsung grew around 74% from a year ago in this price category." The company aims to avoid the commoditization of features and experiences to drive similar year-over-year growth for smartphones in this price segment this year, he said. “To understand the absence of first-time buyers one must analyze the installed base of feature phones.

With over 120 million feature phone users, there's ample room for growth across price points." "The 5G smartphone market, for instance, is growing much faster than other categories. If we end up commoditizing the fast-growing segments, too, that will lead to growth challenges. But, if we can offer additional value to consumers through smartphone experiences that are different, that will lead to a faster pace in new device adoption," he added.