The unique challenges and needs of the Indian market are helping Samsung Electronics to spur innovation and create new products in the country. The world’s biggest consumer electronics company is finding demand for these products not only in India but other countries as well with similar needs.
Convertible refrigerators, washing machines with built-in sink and jet to wash tough stains and microwaves that can prepare rotis and naans were some of these innovations on display at the recent Samsung Southwest Asia Forum 2016 event in Kuala Lumpur. Smartwatches calibrated to track the calories of users after eating Indian food and smart televisions that allow consumers to browse websites as well as watch favourite shows, were other gadgets with India specific features.
“Local is the new global. We are creating products inspired by the local consumer insights,” said H.C. Hong, President and Chief Executive, Southwest Asia, Samsung Electronics. “The research and development (R&D) centres in the region (India) are developing innovations for the entire Samsung world.”
The South Korean firm with sales of $196 billion (Rs.13 lakh crore) said that it has launched an innovation strategy called ‘Make for India’ to create products based on the insights from the Indian market.
India is amongst the hotspots of Samsung’s innovation strategy. It has as many as three research labs in the country in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Noida. Samsung said these centres, which employ over 12,000 research engineers, work on cutting-edge technologies across almost all areas of business.
“Our goal is to augment consumer experience while also fortifying our leadership position in the Indian market” said Mr. Hong.
Here are top five innovations that drew attention at the Samsung Southwest Asia Forum 2016.
Curved TV At the Forum 2016, Samsung unveiled its new line of ultra-high-definition television called SUHD TVs. The company said the television works on quantum dot display technology, which provides true-to-life picture quality on the television. Samsung also said that it has introduced the world’s first ever bezel-less curved design television called KS9000 SUHD TV. With no bezel that normally functions as the border, the viewer now won’t get distracted while watching television. The 2016 range of smart televisions have been built on the Tizen operating system that allows consumers to access movies, games and apps at one place.
Smart convertible refrigerator The Samsung smart convertible 5-in-1 refrigerator enables consumers to customise cooling storage. For instance, the freezer can be converted into a normal fridge to let consumers store more groceries. If the user is travelling, the vacation mode allows consumers to store food in the freezer for a longer period and turn off rest of the fridge compartment. Similarly, the seasonal mode allows users to switch off the freezer, but keep the fridge functioning. The fridge is also armed with a technology to eliminate bacteria from food items.
Samsung also launched a new range of direct cool single-door refrigerators with digital inverter technology. It automatically adjusts cooling demand during hot weather or frequent opening of the fridge door. Samsung said this way it not only delivers energy savings but can also be connected to the inverter at home during power cuts. “This would be a game changer for the Indian refrigerator industry. It operates under widest range of voltage fluctuations,” said Rajeev Bhutani, Vice-President for Consumer Electronics at Samsung India.
Washing machines Samsung has developed ‘AddWash’ front-load washing machine. This makes it easy to add a piece of forgotten laundry to the wash mid-cycle. Based on the feed back from Indian consumers, the company has also come up with ‘ActivWash’ top loading washing machines. The innovation includes a built-in basin and water jet directly above the drum. The clever space-saving design provides the convenience of a nearby sink to wash tough stains with hands. Experts said that this innovation is changing the culture of washing clothes in regions which were mainly dominated by front-load washing machines. “It was developed by the R&D team in India. After its success in the country, it became popular in (South) Korea and got tremendous response,” said Rishi Suri, Product Marketing Head for Consumer Electronics at Samsung India Electronics. “We are targeting very specific requirements asked by the Indian consumers.” The washing machine includes so called ‘magic dispenser’, which creates a powerful whirlwind that dissolves detergent and spreads it evenly before washing the clothes.
Smart Oven Samsung also launched MW7000K HotBlast smart oven for the Indian market. In this fast and powerful hot air is blasted downwards directly onto the food from 52 equally distributed air holes.
This enables to cook the food quicker than a traditional oven. It uses a technology that uses circulating warm air to cook fried food as crisp as deep-fried, with little oil.
Ultra data saving mode The Indian R&D team at Samsung has developed ‘ultra data saving’ feature for the smartphone industry. The firm said that it compresses data across content such as images, video, web browsing and apps to save data consumption by up to 50 per cent.
“It is being loved by the Indian consumers. Lot of such features will come out of Indian R&D centres, which have applications for other parts of the world,” said Manu Sharma, Director for Mobile Business at Samsung India Electronics. Mr. Sharma also introduced the 2016 edition of Galaxy A series of smartphones at the Samsung Forum in Kuala Lumpur.
The phones Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A5 built with metal and glass material are equipped with a fingerprint sensor technology for quick and secure access. The phones have 13-megapixel rear camera and five megapixel front camera. They can capture pictures even in low light conditions and have a feature to ensure blur free photographs. These phones can also take selfies by detecting gestures such as waving of palm or voice. Samsung said the LTE network or 4G wireless communications technology embedded in the phones provide better network coverage and faster streaming of videos, surfing the web and downloading of music. The dual-sim phones are packed with 3,300 mAh and 2900 mAh battery with a promise to last a day even after heavy usage.
The writer attended the Samsung Forum 2016 in Kuala Lumpur on the invitation of Samsung
