With competitors like Apple and Xiaomi absolutely dominating Samsung in China, the company has been forced to turn to India in an effort to reverse its shrinking smartphone sales. The Indian government is actually making this a bit easier for Samsung with its “Make in India” initiative, which offers a number of benefits to companies that manufacture their products within the country. Samsung was quick to take advantage of these benefits, and will reportedly be unveiling a new line of India-made smartphones called Galaxy ON this month. The first two devices will be called the Galaxy ON5 and the Galaxy ON7, both of which will be ultra-affordable devices that may or may not launch in other markets as well.
Samsung is believed to be prepping the launch of yet another series of devices by the end of this month, called Galaxy ON. The first couple of devices that will be made available in the market as part of the lineup has long been rumored to be the Galaxy ON5 and Galaxy ON7. Both devices are said to be manufactured in India as part of the government’s “Make in India” initiative that offers a number of tax concessions for setting up manufacturing in the country. While both devices will obviously be launched in India first and foremost, it is anybody’s guess as to whether they’ll eventually be launched in other markets or if they will remain India-exclusive. A new report now claims that the ON5 will come with an MSRP of Rs. 10,000 ($150) in India, while the ON7 is expected to sport a price-tag of Rs. 13,000 ($195). It remains to be seen whether the ‘ON’ moniker stands for Online-Exclusive, as that seems to the buzzword for brands in India over the past couple of years, ever since Motorola made it trendy with its first generation Moto G handset. As of now, Motorola, Lenovo, Asus, YU are all online-exclusive brands in the country, alongside a number of Chinese brands, all catering to a sizable tech-savvy niche set of buyers. Of course, brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus etc. are also sold exclusively online, as per their global strategy.
