Tizen Phone in India
Samsung Electronics’ Tizen smartphone Samsung Z1 is increasing its popularity in emerging markets such as India and Bangladesh.
According to industry sources, the model has been chosen by more than 100,000 customers in India since its debut on Jan. 14. The sales volume has reached 20,000 units in Bangladesh since Feb. 3. In these markets, approximately seven million and 500,000 smartphones are sold a month, respectively. Although the Samsung Z1’s market share stands at around 1 percent now, the records are higher than expected given that it runs on a minor operating system.
The Samsung Z1 is characterized by its fast Web surfing speed, excellent multitasking performance, and long battery life based on the HTML5-optimized Tizen OS. It is said that these factors are appealing to customers in the Indian market where Android phones are prevalent. The Samsung Z1’s price in India is 99,000 won (US$89), which is equivalent to about 350,000 won (US$317) in Korea.
Samsung Electronics is expected to strike many emerging markets with its Tizen phones. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, India’s Micromax beat Samsung Electronics in terms of market share in the Indian smartphone market in the fourth quarter of last year. Samsung has released various models there, from the Galaxy Star Pro priced at around 80,000 won (US$72) to the Galaxy Note Edge available at over 1 million won (US$907), but failed to outperform Indian and Chinese manufacturers.
At present, Samsung Electronics is carrying out aggressive marketing campaigns for the Samsung Z1 in India and Bangladesh, focusing on its fast Web browser, various premium digital content, and easy-to-use and simple user interface. In addition, it installed remote test lab servers for Tizen application developers in Korea and the United States as well as India, Britain, and Poland. It is predicted that Samsung Electronics will release Tizen phones mainly in these countries in the near future.