Want to make great tech affordable, premiumise the market with 5G-first strategy: Samsung’s Aditya Babbar

“We are very focused on our journey towards Make in India, powering Digital India and making it 5G-first.”

South Korean major Samsung wants to make great tech affordable while continuing to “premiumise” the smartphone market with its 5G-first strategy, the company’s Senior Director for Mobile Business for India, Aditya Babbar, said on the sidelines of the new Galaxy M34 5G launch. Doing that would bring power back to the consumer and help consolidate its leadership, he added.

“We are very focused on our journey towards Make in India, powering Digital India and making it 5G-first,” Babbar told FE, adding that with the M-series (now) moving to 5G, Samsung remains committed to premiumise the market by not compromising on the core specs to give consumers access to a future-ready technology.

The M-series turns 5 this year and has been time and again, “one of the segment’s best with millions of consumers using these devices every day to create, to play games”, Babbar reiterated.

Designed for power users, phones under the series come with massive battery to the tune of 6,000mAh, but over the years, Samsung has expanded their feature set upping the value proposition for budget-conscious buyers. The newly launched Galaxy M34 5G packs high-end specs including a 120Hz Super AMOLED display and 50MP primary camera sensor with optically stabilised lens at a starting price of Rs 18,999 for 6GB/128GB (Rs 16,999 with bank offers).   

“We believe that if you make great tech and make it affordable, that is where you bring power back to the consumer and we want to work towards that and we are very confident that with this device, it will help us to consolidate our leadership,” Babbar said, adding that “now our role is to make great tech of 5G affordable and the M34 is a shining example of that.”

The senior Samsung India executive asserted that the company currently has a network of more than 80,000 stores selling 5G devices and about 20,000 stores giving 5G experience. All this when paired with affordability (through services like Samsung Finance Plus) means, it is now possible to buy a 5G phone “on per day basis at prices less than a 4G [phone].”  

“So that’s where you know we have worked on making tech affordable for the consumer, rather than just catering to a segment-first approach,” he added.

While M becomes “a mainstream strategy” for Samsung, a bit of overlap with A- and F-series (which are also growing by the way), cannot be avoided, but apparently that is by design.

“We are a full range player and, in every strategy, we put the consumer at the centre of whatever we do,” Babbar explained and “every consumer has a very different need. For them, we have a Flip to a Fold to an Ultra with a pen to a gaming phone like the S23 to the M-series. We want to give a lot of options for the consumer to adopt whatever is best for them.” 

Even as Samsung gears to launch its next-generation of foldable devices, come July 26, phones like the M34 5G have equal weightage and focus, if not more, at least in the sense that both try to deliver breakthrough innovation, whether it be through screen-bending tech or the promise of longevity and future-proofing on a budget.

“We are happy that we are continuing to grow faster than the market with the propositions which we have created,” Babbar said, adding “we have our ears on the ground and we believe that there is a space for everyone to coexist, even across the [same] price point. So, we want to keep consumers at the core of what we do.”