Samsung S22 sees record pre-booking; expects to pass industry growth

Buoyed by record pre-booking of its flagship devices in the S22 series, South Korean electronics major Samsung on Wednesday said it expects to outpace the industry growth with expansion of product ecosystem and become a leader in the premium segment by June this year.

Samsung India senior vice president Raju Anthony Pullan told PTI that the company will work on bringing affordability in the premium foldable smartphones through easy upgrade options and providing finance options in tier 3 and 4 towns as well.

“We have 2 million consumers as active users of the S series. In the first 72 hours of the launch, we have registered over 1,00,000 pre-booking of S22 series and as we speak, we have crossed 1,40,000 pre-bookings and still counting as pre-bookings will close on March 10,” Pullan noted.

Samsung is selling the Galaxy S22 series in the price range of Rs 72,999 to Rs 1,18,999 per unit.

The company’s previous version of the Galaxy S series S21 had clocked pre-booking registration of around 90,000 units.

“For the first time, we launched S22 Series with over 1,800 consumers across 17 cities and also broke the Guinness Book of World Record for the simultaneous unboxing at multiple locations. This showcases the consumer’s love for the S22 Series. Our aim is to become the market leader in the premium segment by the end of H1,” Pullan said.

Samsung has bundled several offers for pre-booking Galaxy S22 series smartphones. It includes Galaxy Watch4 worth Rs 26,999 for Rs 2,999 to customers pre-booking Galaxy S22 Ultra, and Galaxy Buds 2 worth Rs 11,999 for Rs 999 for pre-booking Galaxy S22 Plus and Galaxy S22.

“Start for Samsung has been very strong with the S22 and we will drive our position or consolidate on our leadership in the overall smartphone business. We are committed that at the back of the S series launch and new DNA that’s been created with the S series, we will outpace industry from the growth perspective,” Pullan said.

According to Cybermedia Research, Samsung registered a 41 per cent growth on a year-on-year basis and clocked an 18 per cent market share in the Indian smartphone segment in the first quarter of 2021.

“Consumers in India are evolving. Pandemic has helped consumers to realise that it’s no more about a commodity, which is a phone. Now, they want to work with the ecosystem whether it is smartphones, wearables, the watches. We have got a very bullish outlook for the first quarter in the watch segment as well. We will be growing over the same period last year,” Pullan said.

He said buds and tablets are also part of the ecosystem.

“Pivotal to that (growth) will be our strategy of expanding the premium segment. With the S series, we would talk about the democratisation of our premium FE series.

Most importantly, Samsung has always been an innovator. The third lever on expansion will be how we can make foldable devices a mainstream product. Around 34 per cent of our flagship sales (in India) comes from foldable devices, which means consumers are picking up this innovation,” Pullan said.

Samsung foldable smartphones are available in India in the price bracket of 84,000 to Rs 1.58 lakh a unit.

Pullan said that the company will make foldable smartphones affordable by making the upgrades of smartphones easier and providing finance options to customers even in tier 3 and tier 4 towns.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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