Samsung Southwest Asia CEO JB Park announced that the company will absorb rising material costs as much as possible and offer interest-free EMIs and festive discounts to keep smartphones affordable in India during the upcoming festive season. As reported by ETManufacturing, Park stated that rising material costs have led to a 15% degrowth in the Indian market in the first half of this year, with the second half expected to be challenging due to the memory chip crunch getting "severe." The CEO emphasized that Samsung will try to absorb as much as possible, giving the best value of the product to provide affordable solutions to customers through interest-free EMI or festive discounts, stating "During the coming festive season, we will try to provide affordable solutions to customers, whether it's interest-free EMI or a festive discount. We are focused on offering as much support as we can to consumers in India."
A severe shortage of DRAM and flash storage chips since mid-2025 has caused component prices to surge by 300%, disrupting the smartphone market globally. According to ETManufacturing, smartphone prices have risen by 20-30% over the last six months, with industry estimates suggesting that memory costs are likely to stay elevated for 12-18 months with no new significant manufacturing capacity addition expected during this period. The shortage of memory chips is due to constrained production capacity and increased demand amid the AI boom, with geopolitical factors affecting the supply of electronics raw materials. Last month, Samsung announced the launch of its 8th generation of foldables -- Galaxy Z8, which are made in India, with the Galaxy Z8 series phones currently available for pre-order and expected to be available in stores from August 7.
Samsung has launched comprehensive student and youth programs offering significant discounts across its product portfolio to support educational technology needs. According to the latest promotional information, students aged 16-26 can access exclusive discounts through Samsung's Student & Youth Store and Samsung Enhanced Partnership Program with multiple promotional periods throughout the year. Key offers include trade-in discounts capped at 60% of product price for Galaxy devices, extra £100 off Galaxy Book6 Series for verified students, and free items automatically added at checkout for eligible purchases. The program requires verification through UNiDAYS, Student Beans, or valid ac.uk email address to access the dedicated student store, with various promotional periods running through September 2026.
Samsung's research centres in Noida and Bengaluru have played a pivotal role in developing Galaxy AI and improving AI feature performance for Indian languages, according to CEO JB Park. As reported by ETManufacturing, one of the popular AI features is Voice Focus mode, which automatically detects noisy surroundings during phone calls and suppresses background noise without requiring manual user intervention. Park explained that "The popular AI features used by Indian consumers are not limited to photo or video editing. One of the features built by our R&D centres in Noida and Bengaluru addresses the issue of background noise." The company is expanding Galaxy AI's language capabilities to cater to India's diverse linguistic landscape, with native Hindi and Gujarati speakers already using Galaxy AI features such as Call Assist and Interpreter, which are powered by on-device AI technology. Samsung is focusing on on-device AI to help users access AI features directly on their phones, while improving privacy and reducing the need for cloud processing.
As reported by ETManufacturing, device bundling with telecom plans has been common globally for years, making premium smartphones more affordable through monthly payments. However, Kawoosa noted that India has been slower to adopt such models due to the telecom sector's past experience with bundled devices during the RCom CDMA era. While stronger Know Your Customer norms have improved traceability, operators remain cautious about device bundling due to persistent digital fraud involving SIM cards registered using fake identities. Despite these challenges, Kawoosa believes that financing may become as important as hardware innovation in shaping the next phase of the smartphone market.
