Korean electronics giant Samsung launched its
much-awaited Samsung Galaxy S3 in the country on Thursday, two days after unveiling it in Europe,
for Rs 43,180.
The company is targetting 60 per cent share of the Indian smartphone market this year, riding on the success of its Galaxy smartphone series.
The new Galaxy phone is
equipped with a 1.4 GHz quadcore processor paired with 1GB RAM. The S3 features a 4.8-inch super AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel (MP) camera with zero-lag shutter speed, 1080p video capture, a 1.9-inch front-facing camera and a 16 GB onboard memory that is expandable. It runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS.
"This will be a game changer for Samsung and trendsetter for others. We have designed it carefully and added many applications and features keeping Indian consumers in mind," Ranjit Yadav, country head (mobile & IT), Samsung, said.
"We are not giving any forward-looking sales numbers but we are confident that with all its features, the model will outnumber all others and make new sales records for the company," Yadav added.
On being asked about the price at premium of the phone, Yadav said: "The price is the same across the globe. The product has been priced carefully. With all its features, buyers will find it worth the amount."
The smartphone is expected to give tough
competition to rival Apple's iPhone.
Globally, Samsung sold 44.5 million in the January-March quarter - nearly 21,000 every hour - taking its market share to 30.6 per cent. While Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones during the same quarter.
"According to third party data, we have almost 46 per cent share in the Indian smartphone market. We are confident of increasing this to 60 per cent this year," Yadav said.
The Galaxy series is one of the bestsellers from Samsung, which helped the company topple Apple as the world's largest smartphone maker.
The phone boasts of some interesting features like Smart Stay, which uses the front-facing camera to detect whether a user is looking at it and keeps the screen awake.
The Indian smartphone market is expected to grow to about 18 million units in 2012.
Apart from Galaxy S3, Samsung has launched over dozen smartphones in the country this year including Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos.
"Galaxy S3 is inspired by nature and human capabilities. It is effortlessly smart and intuitively simple by design," B.D. Park, president and chief executive officer, South West Asia said.
With inputs from agencies
PHOTO: Associated Press 
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