Samsung Launches Tizen Phone In India

puddingebola notes that Samsung's first smartphones powered by its Tizen operating system have gone on sale in India. "After plenty of speculation and an abort launch in Russia last year, Samsung has finally managed to release its first phone powered by the Tizen operating system. The Samsung Z1 is coming to India initially, where it is available to buy for 5,700 INR — that’s around $92 — from today. The Z1 is an affordable device, both in price and specs. It packs a four-inch WVGA PLS screen, and is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 768 MB RAM. There’s a 3.1-megapixel camera on the rear, and a limited VGA camera on the front. The phone runs version 2.3 of the Tizen operating system, and comes with 4GB of on-device storage which can be expanded by up to 64GB via a micro SD card. It supports dual SIMs, as is commonplace with devices in India."

Comments

Indian market is very strange

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

The market is flooded with cheap chinese knock-offs that sell far cheaper than 6000 Rs. Many of them have dual or triple SIM cards. It is not unusual for them to use one SIM for making within-metro calls, another to for National or statewide calls and yet another one to make international calls. The quality is terrible and reliability is atrocious on these cheap chinese phones. But competition is brutal. Not much of margin there.

Instead of looking at raw sales based on number of units or gross receipts, if one starts breaking down the market by amount of profit generated, iPhone is well ensconced. Top end Samsung comes in next.

Samsung should be careful to distinguish the models and handsets very obviously and visibly. If the brand acquires an association as the "phone for the unwashed masses", the high profit segment will just disappear. My nephew visiting me derisively called the old flip phone "a servant [maid] 's phone". Other nephews and nieces make sure their clothes and accessories will not be mistaken for a cheap imitation. It is a very class conscious society. And the training starts early. Almost all their buying decision seems to be driven by "what my peers will think if they catch me using this product?".