Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Note 5 will be manufactured in India says Asim Warsi of Samsung

Samsung has been feeling the heat in the smartphone market fromits Chinese rivals for quite some time now, with OnePlus and Xiaomi launchingfeature-rich smartphones at half the price of Samsung's flagship models. Tocounter their onslaught, the South Korean giant has upped the ante in the worldof premium smartphones by announcing the launch of Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ andthe Note 5 . The former was launched in India on Wednesday  with a price tag of Rs 57,900. Asim Warsi, VP, Marketing, IT & Mobile, Samsung Indiaelectronics, talks about the company's smartphone business strategy with NidhiSingal of Business Today.

Q. The Galaxy S6 Edge+ follows the launch of the Galaxy S6 andGalaxy S6 Edge earlier this year. How have these two smartphones done in themarket and what are your expectations from the S6 Edge+?

A. We announced the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge in March andopened the sales on April 10. The kind of pre-booking we received for S6 and S6Edge was unprecedented. Even after the launch, we have done exceedingly well,better than the flagship predecessors. Seeing the eminent success, with theGalaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, we see a lot of potential on the Galaxy S6 Edge+as well.

World over, consumers anticipation and consumption of largescreen devices is really encouraging. Seeing that we have launched S6 Edge +and expect consumers would really be waiting for this device.

Q. In line with the global launch, you have launched theSamsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ in India. Will the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ and theGalaxy Note 5 be manufactured in India?

A. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S6+, just like all our smartphones,will be manufactured in India. Even the Galaxy Note 5, when launched in India,will be manufactured at our Greater Noida factory that manufactures all (our)smartphones. The manufacturing facility is fully geared to manufacture any kindof any of technology of devices, from flagship smartphones to tablets tofeature phones. Whatever smartphone we sell in India will be manufactured inIndia; our sale in India is met by the production in India.

Q. Do you manufacture Smartwatches and fitness bands too at theIndia facility?

A. I am sure it has the capability, but we haven't startedmanufacturing smartphones and fitness bands in India yet.

How many factories do you have in India?

We have two manufacturing facilities in India: one inChennai and the other in Greater Noida. The Chennai factory manufactures otherhome appliances, while all our smartphones come from the Greater Noida factory.

Q. In the recent past, you have launched a lot many serieswhich includes A, E, J and S. Don't you think Samsung is confusing itscustomers?

A. On the contrary, the objective of launching these series isto give our consumer a clearer definition of some of these devices and whatthey stand for. For instance, the A series is for design with flagship-likeperformance. The S series is our flagship with the epitome of design, and thereis J series which is for very high performance devices.

Q. What is Samsung's focus for its smartphone business-offlineor online retail?

A. Of all the models we have launched in India this year, therecent phablet launch and J series smartphone launch were online-only launches.These are for consumers who compare products online and purchase devicesonline. All other models are available both online as well as offline.

Q. How to do plan to take on the competition from the leadingas well as Chinese players.

A. Our sale is growing. Our market share is growing. If youlook at our smartphone market share in India, it is excess of 40 per cent as ofJune 2015, according to JFK report. And for us, it is really not thecompetition that defines our approach. We are stead fast, leading consumers andtheir ever changing and evolving preferences and designs. Be it content,operator services, demand - we keep on working on the consumer. That reallyhelped us not to be number one but to grow as number one.

Q. Which segment do you see most of your sales comingfrom?                             

A. Our leadership comes on the back of being an all segmentplayer. The good part is that we get leadership in every segment we play in,which is all segments. We get our volumes in each segment, in accordance withthe market size and growth of these segments.

Q. Any special buy back plans for smartphones?

A. No specific plans that we can share at the moment but havingsaid that, this is the way of the market. Any of us can go and trade our oldsmartphone for the new.

Q. What is Samsung's retail presence in India?

A. We reach out to 1,50,000 points including modern retail andmom and pop stores. Not only do we reach out to the widest set of outlets, wealso have exclusive retails with our franchise partners. We have about 2,100exclusive retail stores. We invest heavily in store promotions, live demo ofdevices, huge amount of training, help train and upgrade capability of ourretail partners too. On our service side too, we have a large network, coveringall parts of India.