Its cut-throat out there! You have to agree with me. Samsung, from ousting Nokia from their 14 year throne as King of mobile device shipments globally, to making Nokia’s Series 40 phones look like childplay, is not joking on this front. Samsung also went ahead in becoming smartphone shipments lead for first quarter, a position attributed mostly to the much loved Samsung Galaxy S II. So after stealing the lead in the smartphone sector from Apple, total device shipments, you would think that Samsung would assume the feature phone market and let Nokia try regaining numbers from that end, you are wrong. Even thought there is competition still from Chinese device manufacturers with the numerous dual sim phones.
Samsung launched the Samsung Ch@t range, that gave dual-sim, dual standby capabilities, and added chatting features only previously available on smartphones. These were to tackle the Chinese dual-sim market, the grey market. Nokia on the other hand have the Asha phones which are Series 40 devices, with a promise to deliver a semi-smartphone experience. Well, there is progress there. But would they fit in where the average young internet user had already tasted the ideos? Thats where the likes of Galaxy mini, LG L3, Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y pro duos, fit in THE UPGRADE! The last two being dual sim android devices with seriously good specs for the price point.
It doesnt end there. Nokia has an ongoing campaign called Lets QWERTY, on TV, billboards and other media. The campaign is aimed at engaging the youth, convincing them that its cool to don a Series 40 Nokia phone for its qwerty. Not bad. In comes Samsung Qool S5270K (Samsung Ch@t 527), a feature phone with 3G at a HSDPA of 7.2Mbps, qwerty, Wi-Fi, optical trackpad among other features, at a price point of Kshs 6899. And a “FAST.COOL.QWERTY.’ tag. Then in a few weeks Samsung will launch a Kshs. 10,000 priced Android powered Samsung Galaxy Pocket.
What do you think, is there a threat to the #letsqwerty business proposition in the mass market? Or am I assuming my things?
