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Expressing his concern, Asim Warsi, vice-president, Samsung Mobile, said, “A five percentage point increase will look significant. Most users are looking to upgrade, but now the decision-making process for that will be delayed due to the hike.”
On Thursday, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had proposed a 6% excise duty on mobile phones above Rs 2,000 while presenting the Union Budget 2013-14.
Till now, it's 1%. Mobile phones not more than Rs 2,000 will continue to be levied a concessional excise duty of only 1%.
The increase in excise duty may have a negative impact on the industry, he said, adding the company might come up with some bundled offers to reduce the price burden on consumers. Mobile phones in the Rs 6,000 and above category is a fast growing segment in the country, according to him.
Bets big on enterprise segment
Samsung is looking at tapping the enterprise segment in a big way in coming years, and expects it to account for 10% of its Southwest Asia revenue by this year end, according to Uday Bhat, director (IT Solutions Business), Samsung India Electronics Private Limited.
“We are investing heavily in the enterprise segment for research and development (R&D), and the efforts have started paying dividends,” he said. It has set a target to garner 25% of its total revenues from the enterprise segment by 2020.
“Enterprise solutions are central to achieving success in the business-to-business (B2B) market. So, we have separated our enterprise division and are focusing on the enterprise segment in a big way,” he said. It will focus on five verticals - education, healthcare, hospitality, retail and financial services.
To support its enterprise category, the company today launched Samsung KNOX—a mobile enterprise solution that provides security of personal data as well as enterprise data – to support the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) segment, and Samsung Technology Enterprise Program (STEP), a partner programme to drive mutual growth.
