Some good news for the Samsung fans who would like to own the Galaxy SIII and phablet Note II as the company on Monday slashed the prices of both these products.

The SIII is now available for Rs 28,990 compared with Rs 31,900 earlier and Note II will be available for Rs 35,900 down from the previous price tag of Rs 36,900.

The price drop for SIII is 6 per cent while that for Note 2 is around 3 per cent, Samsung India said.

“We are looking at fuelling the growth in the over Rs 20,000 smartphone market with this new pricing,” Asim Warsi, Vice-President- Mobile, Samsung India, told Business Line .

The company launched the Galaxy SIII in May last year priced at Rs 43,180, while the Note II was launched in September for Rs 39,990.

The company was one of the firsts to launch the concept of phablet in India that has a bigger screen and apart from using as tablet, consumers can also make calls from the same device.

Galaxy SIV coming

According to analysts and people from the industry, Samsung India has many product launches over the next few months and with the expected launch of its latest smartphone – SIV also, the reason for such price cuts are inevitable.

“With the three-four launches coming in, the company can rid of the inventories of the existing products. Not that the company won’t sell these existing products anymore, but they can clear the stocks and replace with the new ones for the time being,” Manasi Yadav, Senior Market Analyst – Mobiles and Tablets, IDC India, said.

She said Rs 20,000-30,000 is the price bracket that did very well in the last few months, so the company may want to bank on those categories.

With the new products are expected to be priced around Rs 40,000, Samsung India might want to keep some gap in the pricing of these products.

> ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in

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