Samsung's flagship segment sales to suffer during festive season

Samsung has already lost billions globally due to the Note 7 battery fault and analysts have predicted that it will significantly hamper the company’s flagship sales rate in India ahead of the festive season.

Coming to its India business, the company is in for a substantial loss ahead of the festive season. Senior telecom research analyst from Counterpoint Research, Tarun Pathak, said, “The recall of Note 7 came at a wrong time when market is gearing up for festive season.”

Pathak said, “Samsung will have a tough time especially in flagship segment in India where Apple and Samsung together have close to 95 per cent of the total volume.”

The Indian festive season is extremely important for consumer goods and electronic device manufactures and smartphones are one of the products that retail highly during the festive season.

Samsung has always managed to perform well during this season but the problem surrounding Note 7 might not lead to a similar consequence this year.

While the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge might keep them in the flagship contest, both the devices are quite old to be taking on new flagship devices, especially Apple’s new eye candies — iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

“The best chance for Samsung to reduce the damage is to be as transparent as it can be about the Note 7 issue before it re-enters the market,” he concluded.

Samsung Electronics shares fell to their lowest level in nearly two months on Monday, after the company requested users not to use the Note 7, and return the handset due to fire-prone batteries.

The company issued this statement voluntarily on September 2 and asked consumers to return the 2.5 million handsets it sold globally. Warnings from aviation firms all around the world along with market indicators have further worsened proceedings for the South Korean giant.

Currently the phablet, which experts claimed could have been the best smartphone in 2016, can turn out to be the worst phone manufactured by Samsung. Analysts all around the globe have predicted the Note 7 disaster to have serious implications on the company’s smartphone business.

Considering the fact that major mobile manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and HTC introduce flagships on a yearly basis, the damage suffered by Samsung is paramount.

Even if the device resurfaces with an altered battery, chances of revival look bleak. Samsung’s flagship goals this year will also suffer a great deal, owing to the whole debacle.