The Samsung Z1, introduced at the start of the year as the first mass market Tizen smartphone available on sale, is a success. We already told you that it sold over 20,000 units in Bangladesh in its first week of availability before going on to sell over half a million units in the entire quarter and pushing Samsung’s share of the Bangladesh smartphone market to 23.4%. In neighbouring India the story is the same.
The Samsung Z1 has sold half a million units in India. The Indian market is highly competitive at the Z1’s price point and managing to move 500,000 units in such a time is commendable and could be what is informing Samsung’s decision to release a successor. India has a number of homegrown companies like Micromax, Spice and Karbonn that are pushing their own budget smartphones and are quite popular. While Samsung still has a footing in the India market, it is facing tough competition from the likes of Xiaomi who have leveraged on their successful online flash sales to make inroads in India. OPPO also has affordable devices it is pushing in that market.
According to a report by Business Korea, Samsung will be introducing the Z1’s successor, the Z2 (or whatever it will be called), in Russia, Malaysia, China and Sri Lanka. We don’t have a specific release date but it will be soon.
