In a bold move towards emerging markets, Samsung bets big on its role in the mobile landscape and announces it will double its smartphone production in India by 2019. The plan has already met full approval by the Indian government: there’s no stopping it. This turns out to be very intriguing, especially considering all the problems smartphone has recently faced with Note 7 and the drop in iPhone sales of 2% in India registered in the past quarter – an even more alarming situation for Cupertino, given the 33% YoY slip.
Clearly something is going on. According to Strategy Analytics, Android has reached a spike of 97% market share in India. On August 23 Samsung India launched Samsung Z2, the first 4G Tizen-powered smartphone of the South Korean company. Is Samsung placing its hope in Tizen to further enlarge its share in the market while at the same time threatening Android from a predominant position? After all, just six days ago Pixel, the AI-powered mobile phone that Google is pushing so much, has been available to preorder in India. That’s the competition, baby!
But certainly, this investment is already making an impact.
At first, the $300 M will focus on the Noida, in Uttar Pradesh. We’re speaking of over 2,000 new jobs that will join the 4,000 people already working in the factory, not to mention the thousands of new opportunities that will open in related industries.
Founded in 1996, the Noida plant was the opening move of Samsung in India, and at date it grows up to become the worldwide top rank facility among Samsung subsidiaries for quality of smartphone, LED TVs and refrigerators. A bet, this one, that represents not only a leap in production, but an investment on quality, and, from a consumer perspective, a committment for Samsung to keep delivering world-class products.
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