Samsung is more focussed on moulding consumer experience rather than competing with the growing numbers of Indian and Chinese handset vendors.

According to Asim Warsi, Vice-President (Marketing, IT and Mobile) of Samsung India, the company has launched some 16-odd handsets in the first seven months of 2015. And it intends to “carry forward” the momentum. Samsung’s market share has moved up to 40 per cent (in smart-phones) this year so far; as against 35 per cent at the beginning of the year.

In an interview to BusinessLine , Warsi talks about taking on competition, sale of flagship devices, product portfolio management across all price points, and performance of the Tizen operating system (OS). Excerpts:

Are you going to continue being present across all price points?

Samsung has been a full range player and has straddled all ends with flagship to high-end to mass market smartphone offerings, as well as feature phones and tablets. We are a full mobility devices player, and will remain so.

How does this strategy help you?

Over the years, Samsung found it hugely important to be a full range player in order to address the needs of the consumer in every segment.

And that’s important for us. We would want to get consumers early in their mobile lives; whether through feature phones or smart-phones. And successively take them up the technology and experience.

Flagship device sales have not been up to the mark, globally. What is the scenario when it comes to India?

I will answer specific to India. The S6 has got a resounding success in the Indian market and there has been a great amount of inquiry and buzz well before the launch itself.

There were large pre-bookings too. This was followed by great sales and it continues even today.

How do you tackle competition at the premium as well as at the mass ends?

We are more focussed on servicing consumers in these segments; rather than on competition.

In the premium side, we vie to win consumers through great designs, technologies and software aspects that are really meaningful.

There is also a huge effort that goes into refreshing new devices and designs and model series. If you look at 2015, there have been two flagship device launches; some more in the premium segment; and some which are in the mid-to-high-to-premium side of the market.

The story in the mass segment is not much different. Of course, what consumers are looking for here is different; but our effort and thinking remains the same for sub-10k ranges.

We will continue to address various consumer segments through our device portfolio.

Consider the Z1 launch. It was thumping success and was targeted at feature phone users who wished to upgrade to a smartphone.

Z1 has Tizen OS (a Linux-based OS developed by Samsung). There have been many such operating systems that have found limited or no success. What is your strategy for Tizen?

For time immemorial, Samsung has been OS agnostic and has worked across a number of operating systems. It’s now our priority to serve one that consumers seek.

So if Android or Tizen of Java is what they seek, we will build it for them. The other point is the wholesome capabilities that consumers want from Samsung.

We are not here to make one OS popular over another. We are here to give whatever consumers seek and provide them with a choice.

Do you intend to have an online only portfolio, like J5 and J7 smartphones?

Online is an important channel for us; the J5 and J7 have been launched online only.

Whether this will be a strategy (to have an online only portfolio) or not, varies time-to time and is also consumer objective specific.

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