NEW DELHI, Sept 17: Tech giant Samsung on Thursday said it expects its cumulative sales from its M series of devices in India to cross 20 million units by the end of the year.
The company, which competes against rivals like China’s Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo in the Indian market, had introduced its M series of smartphones in February last year aimed at strengthening its position in the online channels.
“Beyond the USD 3.5 billion in GMV (gross merchandise value) that the M series has built out to do, the number of consumers who have come into the M series, by the exit of 2020 from launch, will be in excess of 20 million devices,” Samsung India Senior Vice-President Asim Warsi said.
Previously, the company said the cumulative sales from this range is expected to cross USD 3.5 billion by the end of 2020.
Samsung India had launched six devices under the M series last year and eight devices this year.
Asked about future launches, Warsi said the company has an “interesting” line-up for the next year.
In February last year, Samsung had introduced the India-first M series, hoping to re-capture its pole position from rival Xiaomi. The company is also aggressively expanding its own online store to bolster sales.
Warsi said the M series is rooted and built to meet the needs of Gen-Z (those took born between January 1995 and December 2003) in India and has since then been expanded to many other markets.
According to research firm Counterpoint, smartphone shipment in India declined 51 per cent y-o-y to just over 18 million units in the June 2020 quarter, impacted by the nationwide lockdown imposed by the Indian government to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Xiaomi led the tally with a 29 per cent share of the smartphone market, followed by Samsung (26 per cent), Vivo (17 per cent), Realme (11 per cent), Oppo (9 per cent) and others (8 per cent) in the June quarter.
In a separate report, the research firm had said online channels accounted for 43 per cent share of the Indian smartphone sales in the June 2020 quarter. It attributed the increase in online channels’ share to a shift in consumer behaviour, who are now preferring contactless shopping experience and practicing social distancing. (PTI)
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