Samsung May Stop Selling Sub 15,000 Phones In India Very Soon: Heres Why

Samsung India is reportedly planning to exit the feature phone business in the country owing to not enough demand or yields. The report comes from ET Telecom and claims the last batch of feature phones made for the Indian market will be in the month of December. Now, if you want to know what could have made the Korean chaebol decide so, read on for the probable causes.

Dwindling yields for Samsung in the feature phone market

In Q1 2022, the overall basic phone shipments have dropped 39-per cent (on year) according to Counterpoint Research. This is apparently due to a supply crunch, high inventory levels, and an inflation-induced decline in demand.

Coming to Samsung, it fell down to the third spot with a 12-per cent share, behind Itel (21-per cent) and Lava (20-percent). 

Counterpoint Research also notes that at the end of March, Samsung’s entire quarterly shipment was 1-per cent in value and 20-per cent in volume.

Now, this is not all. There’s one more vector to cover.

Govt. of India’s PLI Limit

The Government of India’s PLI (Performance Linked Incentive) scheme has a mandate which offers sops only on manufacturing phones costing more than Rs. 15,000 (factory price). So, no concession if you make handsets below that. You are incentivized to only make phones above ₹15k in India.

There’s also the case of rising selling prices of phones in the ₹10-20K price bracket owing to traction in terms of volume. 

This could also be part of the problem Samsung is currently in.

The sources with knowledge of the matter have told ET, “Samsung has spoken to channel partners and said they will exit the India feature phone business in the next few months or by this year's end". This contract partner in question is believed to be Dixon.

It could then channel its efforts toward the rewarding higher-end smartphone business. In March, it had garnered a 22% share thanks, especially thanks to its performance in the 5G phone market. In fact, it has been topping the charts for two quarters in a row.

Now, while Samsung may stop selling feature phones in India, it may still make the phones in the country to meet the export demands. As per government records, the total feature phone exports from us to the foreign markets like Latin America and Africa was Rs. 1,496 crores in FY21, which was a 621-per cent surge from the previous year.

We will be keeping a close eye on the developments of this news. So, stay tuned.

As for other news, reviews, feature stories, buying guides, and everything else tech-related, keep reading Digit.in.

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Nothing Phone 1 with transparent design previewed ahead of launch

Nothing Phone (1) is one of the most anticipated smartphones this year building upon the success of the Nothing Ear (1) TWS earphones. With the Nothing Phone (1), Carl Pei and co. are vying to radically disrupt how modern smartphones look and it’s now confirmed that the upcoming Phone 1 has a translucent design, just like the Ear (1) earbuds. While most details about the Phone 1 are kept under wraps, its specifications have allegedly leaked earlier this month and it’s expected to be a mid-range smartphone.

Early design schematics of Nothing Phone (1)

In an exclusive interview with Wallpaper, CEO Carl Pei and Tom Howard, head of design revealed some intricate details about the Phone (1). Starting with the design of the back panel, Howard told Wallpaper that they “wanted to bring the inside out”, hinting at a transparent or translucent design for the debutant. The Phone (1) isn’t the first phone to ship with a transparent design but since it's Nothing’s first phone, the approach here is to make it look different from what’s known today as the modern smartphone. It’s also confirmed that the Phone (1)’s frame is made out of recycled aluminium. 

I want to be transparent with my followers (and everything we design). We cracked a transparent design with ear (1) and now it’s time (2) do it again. pic.twitter.com/APQW3XNHvu

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) May 24, 2022

“There are over 400 components in a smartphone, assembled in layers. We wanted to celebrate the “good ones”, the things we thought were really interesting to emphasise,” Howard says. To that end, some of the elements that are highlighted on the Phone (1) include the cameras and the wireless charging coil.

1972 New York Subway map

The engineering team derived inspiration for the design of the Phone (1) from the 1972 New York Subway map designed by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda and the 1933 London Underground map by Harry Beck, along with many other subway maps. 

“One of the issues we saw with the tech industry was that nobody had a consistent way of designing products. Apart from Apple – you can see their coherent vision. But if you had a table full of products from another manufacturer, you don’t really see that. From the very start, we wanted to have a very distinct and iconic design language of our own,’ says Pei. 

He goes on to assert that Nothing will maintain the same philosophy as it ventures into other product categories meaning that the transparent design language will make it to other Nothing products as well.

When will Nothing Phone (1) launch?

Previously in March, Carl Pei revealed that the Phone (1) will launch in Summer 2022 but apart from that we don’t know the exact date of the launch. However, Pei has hinted in one of his tweets that the Phone (1) will launch on June 9 at 4:20 PM.

6/9 at 4:20

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) May 4, 2022

As per the latest report by popular tipster Max Jambor that cites a European retailer, the Nothing Phone (1) will either launch or will go on sale on July 21 and is expected to be priced around 500 Euros.

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iPhone 14 to get a pricier selfie camera, but the phones cost may be hiked

The Apple iPhone 14 series is expected to hit the market later this year and the rumour mills have already begun churning with leak after leak surfacing. Now, we have a new leak regarding the upcoming Apple iPhone 14's selfie camera. Reportedly, Apple is switching from their current supplier to a South Korean company for the hardware of the iPhone 14's selfie camera.

According to ET News, Apple will be switching to LG Innotek, a South Korean company, for sourcing front cameras for the upcoming iPhone 14. The company was already slated to supply the front cameras for the iPhone 15 series but Apple will reportedly be preponing the process. However, this upgrade may come with a price hike.

According to the report, this switch will turn Apple phone selfie cameras from a "low-end" component to a "high-end" one. This will reportedly cost the company three times more than the selfie cameras used on previous phones, including the iPhone 13.

Apple iPhone 14 to get a more expensive selfie camera

According to the same report we mentioned above, Apple cameras were majorly supplied by Japan's Sharp and an unnamed Chinese company. Sharp will continue its position as a camera supplier for Apple but LG Innotek will reportedly replace the Chinese company. There were some alleged quality assurance problems with the Chinese supplier which have caused Apple to switch to LG Innotek before anticipated. 

The LG Innotek hardware is dubbed as "high-end" camera components, almost matching the quality of the rear cameras. The new cameras will reportedly introduce the autofocus feature to iPhone selfie cameras. 

The report also mentions that the selfie camera supply will be split between Sharp and LG Innotek. While the autofocus feature is the only improvement mentioned in the report, speculations regarding other improvements such as a larger sensor and higher resolution are also rife.

The higher cost, however, will most likely pass on to the end-user and whether or not the improvements are worth the price bump is something we can only comment on once we review the device.

The iPhone 14 lineup is said to feature four smartphones – the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are reportedly set to feature a pill-shaped selfie camera cutout and will feature the latest A16 Bionic chip. 

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New PlayStation Plus Debuts With Fewer Titles, Additional Upgrade Charges for Discounted Subscriptions

Sony's new PlayStation Plus has debuted in select Asian markets with far fewer games than the originally teased over 700 titles. It has also been found that Sony is charging more to subscribers who bought the original PlayStation Plus service at a discounted price.

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Microsoft Store is the big winner of the Build 2022 developer conference

Microsoft Build 2022 is underway. It started off on May 24 and goes on till May 26, 2022. For the third consecutive year, the developer event is free and online. Here we will go through the key announcements made by the Redmond-based company and guess what, the Windows store is the big winner. It is being made more useful by opening it up to Win32 apps sans a waitlist. So that means more options for the end-user and making things easier for the user is the new app restoration facility. 

Microsoft Build 2022 Announcements

Microsoft is working on an automatic app restoration option in the Windows store. This could be similar to app stores on other platforms. Now, the only catch could be that this will work with apps that are present in the store. It shouldn’t be a problem with apps like Canva, Epic Games, Firefox, Zoom, Audacity, and OpenOffice. So, if you use apps downloaded from external sources, don’t expect this to work. 

This means the Microsoft store needs to have more apps. Even many of the popular apps aren’t available on it. Probably to fix this, the company is getting rid of the waitlist for submitting Win32 as well as PWA apps to the store. 

Besides these two additions, Microsoft has also revealed that it will be showing ads in the Microsoft Store and app listings on Windows Search.

As for other news, reviews, feature stories, buying guides, and everything else tech-related, keep reading Digit.in.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Release Date Set for October 28

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II's release date has been set for October 28. It will be a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot.

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Call of Duty Mobile Season 5: Tropical Vision begins on June 2 in India: Know whats new

Activision has announced season 5 of Call of Duty Mobile. It will be released on June 2, 2022, at 5.30 am IST (June 1 at 5 pm PT). This will mark the first time you get to experience a female-led battle pass. The new season also brings a lot of free and premium goodies. The major features comprise 50 new battle pass reward points, new operators like Rampage and Park, and new weapons like Oden and Grenade, among other things. Let’s have a deeper look at everything you could expect from this CoD Mobile update.

Call of Duty Mobile Season 5: Here’s everything that’s new

There is a new small-to-medium-sized map called Apocalypse which had first appeared in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. It has got lawless jungles of Laos as well as temples and buildings, wherein you get to engage in exhilarating brawls. 

Season 5 also consists of a themed event titled Flood Team Bravo. Here’s the premise —  In the aftermath of a biological attack, a human-created tropical storm, there is massive flooding, that has uprooted lives, and even endangered some. So, you play as part of Soap’s BRAVO team in “a mission to extract water by strengthening the water pumps throughout the area”. You can play in Battle Royale and Multiplayer matches.

Speaking of which, the newest multiplayer mode is Guns Blazing Encore with 8-player free-for-all gameplay. As you eliminate other players, you gain Fury, and once you have full Fury, you can transform into a super-soldier who can shoot multiple rounds at the enemies. This Guns Blazing Encore mode will be out on CoDM starting June 3 to June 9 UTC.

Last, but not least, Tournament Mode is available in Season 5 too.

So get ready to play and win as many as 50 new battle pass reward points and other treats sprinkled throughout the S05.

As for other news, reviews, feature stories, buying guides, and everything else tech-related, keep reading Digit.in.

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