Dual SIMs Dominate Smartphone Choices..

Samsung India says that as much as 80 % to 85 % of those who are looking to purchase new handsets prefer dual-SIM handsets. The South Korean company will launch a new smartphone called Galaxy Grand 2 in the category, next month.

Samsung which already sells 20 dual-SIM handsets in the market, claims that there are 2 main reasons why users choose them.

Mr.  Manu Sharma, Director of Mobiles for Samsung India,  “One is to manage value for growing data needs of the consumers. They look at controlling costs by having a data card extra. Yet another reason is that many people travel a lot and in spite of reduced roaming charges, they prefer to have local SIM card of another circle”

The use of dual-SIMs was expected to reduce after the telecom industry brought in mobile number portability (MNP) wherein a subscriber can change the telecom provider while retaining the mobile number.

Over time, due to reduction in competition on prices, dual SIM usage reduced, but with data becoming important, it has come back again.

“Some people prefer to use 2 SIM cards for the varied services that offer, because the usage of mobile phones extended from voice calls to data services as well,” said a telecom sector analyst.

Samsung offers dual-SIM handsets across the price range from under Rs 5,000 range to high-end phones across like S4 Mini at Rs. 22,250 which is the most expensive one.

Samsung has about 51 % market share in the smartphone market.  It is also looking to maintain its dominant position by localising its content as well innovating on new features that it offers. Its latest handset, Galaxy Grand 2 has introduced a new feature such as Club Samsung, which converges all of the handset’s infotainment content.

Club Samsung has digital features such as movies, music, gigs and live TV which is optimised for Samsung’s devices. It has already tied-up with content provider, Hungama, to source Indian content.  It is a single repository of content across 5,000 movies, four lakh songs, 500 gigs. Its Live TV offer more than 90 channels.

Apart from features and dual-SIM capabilities, Mr. Sharma says that screen size is influencing purchase decisions of smartphones. Phablets which come in between phones & tablets and have a screen size between 5.6 to under 7 inches, are now taking over the market.

Though the number of sales of these devices are small, they are being preferred over tablets, by many users and is a rapidly growing at around 200 %.

“Users still prefer handsets which are handy, at the maximum possible screen size,” said Mr. Sharma. However, phablets are now being preferred by enterprise users who are purchasing them in bulk. Samsung which is a preferred consumer choice, currently has under 10 % of its volumes coming from the enterprise market.

“There is interest in tablets and phablets in the enterprise market of government, education, finance and telecoms sector. We have Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programmes where we offer solutions by tying up with software providers like customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP),” said Mr. Sharma.

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