With Rs 34,300 crore revenue, Samsung undisputed market leader in India

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) After registering 27 per cent growth in mobile business revenue for the financial year 2016-17 -- touching a mammoth 34,300 crore -- Samsung has once again become the leader in the highly competitive and price-sensitive Indian market.

"Samsung continues to be India's smartphone leader by a fair distance. We are growing across segments -- premium, mid-segment and affordable," Asim Warsi, Global Vice President, Samsung India, said in a statement on Thursday.

"Our ears are firmly to the ground and this helps us deliver the best smartphone experience to our consumers and that is helping us gain the trust of consumers. We will sustain and consolidate our leadership in the smartphone industry," Warsi added.

With this kind of growth, Samsung has eclipsed the sales of key Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Lenovo and even the Cupertino-based giant Apple.

"We continue to be the market leader in India by a distance and through our innovations and trust and love of our consumers, we will sustain and consolidate our leadership in the smartphone industry over the next few years," Samsung said.

The South Korean giant had 60 per cent market share (by value) in the premium segment for the August-September-October period, according to German market research firm GfK. For the overall smartphone market, Samsung had over 45 per cent market share (by value) for the last three months.

"Every third smartphone sold in India is a Galaxy J series smartphone," the company said.

According to a recent IDC report, with a market share of 23.5 per cent and having shipped 9.2 million smartphones in the third quarter this year, Xiaomi became the fastest-growing smartphone brand with a growth rate of nearly 300 per cent (year-on-year) in the third quarter this year.

According to IDC, Xiaomi had 23.5 per cent market share in India, similar to Samsung, the Lenovo-Motorola combine was at 9 per cent, Vivo at 8.5 per cent and OPPO at 7.9 per cent.

"German research firm GfK reports final consumption which is the most important measure of market share. Shipments are important but they don't tell the final market share. The real share is what I sold out to my customers and here, we are pretty strong," Warsi told IANS during a recent interview.

"Our supply chain is very efficient and lean till the retailers' end. We don't do big imports, ship and create massive inventories. We pulse the supply chain system based on the changing demand and the seasons in India," Warsi explained.

The South Korean giant recently announced that it would invest Rs 4,915 crore in expanding its Noida manufacturing plant.

"The Indian smartphone market is very encouraging and will keep growing in double digits. Wait for some industry-disrupting features soon from us," Warsi said.