How Can Samsung Regain Top Spot In Overall Handset Space?

More recently, Samsung has been usurped by Xiaomi in the Indian smartphone market, with the South Korean tech giant having to settle for the second spot during the second quarter of 2020 in terms of market share. Meanwhile, other brands like OPPO and Realme are quickly gaining more ground, and over the next year or two, we can witness total domination of Chinese OEMs in the smartphone industry.

For many years, Samsung has been the undisputed leader when it came to smartphones in the Indian market. Until 2014, Samsung had created a large separation between itself, and the other brands, which were mostly local manufacturers. So the brand currently finds itself in an unfamiliar territory, but will undoubtedly look to close the gap, and get back on top within the next couple of months.

So what can the brand do, to one-up its Chinese counterparts? Here are a few things that might help the consumer electronics giant in reclaiming the top spot.

Gaming Phones in Budget and Mid-Range Segments

One of the reasons why Realme has become the go-to brand for budget consumers just two years after entering the Indian smartphone market, is because of its flexibility, and its ability to offer the best phones for gaming at that price point. For instance, the Realme Narzo 10 and Realme Narzo 10A, which are priced close to Rs. 10,000 are excellent phones, especially for avid gamers. However, Samsung smartphones under 10000 may not be able to offer the same kind of performance, which is pushing consumers to opt for Chinese brands.

Similarly, in the mid-range segment, Samsung can focus on the growing mobile gaming audience, and unveil gaming-centric smartphones. Redmi K20 Pro and Poco X2 are excellent examples of how Xiaomi now also offers smartphones that offer the best possible gaming experience to the users in the mid-range segment.

Optimize UI and Offer Better Specs In Budget Segment 

What the Chinese brands have done better than any other brand, is that they pack as many features as possible, while not compromising on the user interface. Chinese OEMs optimize UIs to better cater to the consumer needs and wants; an example for that is OnePlus’s OxygenOS, which offers intuitive user experience, and is one of the main reasons for the much-vaunted “OnePlus Experience†that consumers now crave. While Samsung also offers the Samsung One UI, which is one of the best user interfaces, the budget and mid-range phones could still use some tweaking.

The other complaint that smartphone users have had with Samsung over the past few years, and which has driven users towards Chinese OEMs has to do with phone specs. Chinese brands like Xiaomi and Realme have found ways to offer better processors at lower costs, something Samsung needs to do with its budget and mid-range phones. The past couple of years has seen Samsung making a calculated and conscious effort to offer a better Samsung new phone through its M-Series and A-Series, but the brand faces the very real possibility of being left behind by the Chinese manufacturers.

Samsung is arguably the most trusted brand in the consumer electronics segment, and if it makes a couple of tweaks as mentioned above, we could very well see the brand taking back its place on the throne.