Samsung ENDING its feature phones in India, focus on expensive phones only

Samsung is said to end its low cost feature phone business in India by the end of this year. Here are all the details.

Samsung will now focus on high-tier smartphones priced at least above Rs. 15,000. (Amritanshu / HT Tech)

Samsung is ending its low cost feature phone business in India, if the latest rumours are to be believed. Samsung has been selling low cost feature phones for the rural markets despite pulling off great sales figures for its luxurious Samsung Galaxy devices. It is now said that Samsung is pulling off the plug on its feature phones by the end of this year, with the last batch of devices set to be manufactured in December. These batches will be made by Samsung's contact manufacturer Dixon, says the report.

“Samsung has spoken to channel partners and said they will exit the India feature phone business in the next few months or by this year's end," said one source to The Economic Times. Neither Samsung has commented on this development, nor its manufacturer Dixon. While the feature phone business is ending, the sources say that Samsung is focusing on the higher price tiers, with smartphones that cost only above Rs. 15,000.

Samsung feature phones are ending?

The move comes with Samsung mandated to get sops only on producing smartphones worth over ₹15,000 factory price. Moreover, average selling prices in India have risen, with more sales happening in the ₹10,000-20,000 price segment, says market experts.

Feature phone sales have seen a decline of 39 percent YoY in the first quarter of 2022, based on data from the Counterpoint Research. This was mainly due to supply crunch, high inventory levels and drop in demand. In this, it was Itel and Lava leading the charts, with Samsung trailing at the third spot.

While the feature phones business sis wrapped up, Samsung is posting good sales figures for its high-end Galaxy smartphones. Based on the reproach date from Counterpoint Research, Samsung performed exceptionally well in the first quarter of 2022 with its Galaxy S22 series devices, all of which carry a price higher than Rs. 70,000. The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are direct rivals to the Apple iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini, whereas the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra takes on the iPhone 13 Pro devices.

We had reviewed all of these phones and even put them against each other, only to find the Samsung S22 Ultra taking over the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and the Samsung S22 series beating the iPhone 13 range in terms of user experience.