SAMSUNG LAUNCHES GALAXY S4 MINI AT RS 27,9000, S4 ZOOM A RS 29,900.

Mumbai: Samsung on Tuesday introduced two smartphones from the S4 family in the Indian market — S4 Mini and S4 Zoom — priced at Rs 27,900 and Rs 29,900, respectively.

Electronics giant Samsung expects its Galaxy S4 range to contribute as much as 20 percent of its smartphone sales volume by the year-end as it expands the range in the country.

"Galaxy S4 has received a phenomenal response since its launch in the Indian market. We are confident that Mini and Zoom will also do well...We expect the S4 range to comprise 15-20 percent of our smartphone sales (volume) from India by the end of this year," Samsung director (mobile business) Manu Sharma said.

The company is evaluating the launch of S4 Active in the Indian market, he said.

The S4 was launched in India in April and is priced at about Rs 37,000. Sharma declined to comment on sales numbers for the S4.

With the two new devices, Samsung now has 14 smartphones in its portfolio, priced between Rs 5,240 and Rs 40,300.

According to industry experts, smartphones comprise 24 percent of the sales volume of the mobile phone market, while in value terms, the share is higher at about 40 percent as the devices are priced higher than feature phones.

India registered sales of 73.5 million mobile handset units during January-April 2013, registering a growth of 11.1 percent year-on-year, as per data by CyberMedia Research.

Of this, 64.1 million units were feature phones, which grew by 2.4 percent y-o-y. However, while smartphones comprised just 9.4 million units, the sales grew by 167.3 percent on an annual basis.

Samsung was the leader in the smartphone category with 40.7 percent share, followed by Micromax at 19.3 percent and Karbonn at 8.6 percent market share, the data showed.

The Android 4.2.2 (JellyBean) operating system powered Galaxy S4 comes with a 16 megapixel camera with 10X zoom capability. It also allows users to capture and send pictures to others while they are on a call.

The 4.27-inch Galaxy S4 Mini comes with a 1.7GHz dual core processor, eight MP rear-facing camera and 1.9 MP HD front-facing camera.

The WatchON app on the phone allows users to use their S4 Mini as a remote to control their TVs, set-top boxes and DVD players.

Samsung has partnered with Reliance Communications, under which users can get 2GB 3G data free per month for three months from the telecom operator Reliance.