The much awaited Samsung's newest Android smartphone, Galaxy S3, made its India debut, priced at Rs 43,180 on Thursday.
The device comes in two colors, of which the white model was made available in stores/ online yesterday, while the pebble blue version has been delayed for a few weeks.
Despite all the high-end features and latest additions, its reasonably higher price has failed to impress the potential buyers as Rs, 43,180 for a 16 GB device isn't much of a delight for consumers eyeing the product from a very long time.
Also, the price isn't any less than the Apple's iPhone 4S and HTC One X.
However, if you think everything in Samsung's newest flagship phone looks good except for the price, the latest bit has it that the device can be owned for Rs. 38, 900 which is 4,000 rupees less than the MRP rate.
According to India's Real Time News, the actual retail price of Galaxy S3 will cost buyers only 39,000 and consumers can buy online from e-retailers like Flipkart, Indiaplaza for just Rs. 38,900 with one year manufacturer warranty for Phone and six months warranty for in the box accessories.
However, the device was priced at Rs. 42,500 on Samsung India Store, along with a Mono Bluetooth worth Rs. 2299 as a free gift.
The multinational South Korean conglomerate finally released its third generation smartphone, powered with Android operating system 4.0 and quad-core microprocessor that also tracks users face and eye movements.
The Galaxy S3, touted as an "iPhone killer," has already recorded the highest pre-booking orders after it was unveiled earlier this month in London and last week in Europe and Middle East countries.
With some extremely phenomenal features like Smart Stay, Pop up play and several others, S3 is expected to be the biggest hit this year.
"India is one of the top three strategic markets in the world for Samsung," a company release quoted H.C. Ryu, Samsung's vice president of sales and marketing, as saying at the phone's launch in India.
The Korean giant expects to capture 60 percent of the Indian smartphone market with the release of its latest flagship phone.
"According to third party data, we have over 46 per cent share in the Indian smartphone market. We are confident of increasing this to 60 per cent this year," Economic Times quoted Samsung India Head, Ranjit Yadav, as saying.
"India, one of the world's largest mobile market, is indeed very important to us as it contributes substantial portion of our global sales. We see India as one of key growth markets 2012 going forward, especially in smartphone segment where we have observed overwhelming growth in last couple of quarters," he told the daily.
Apart from the already known gesture-based features and a bunch of other unique specifications, Galaxy S3 also understands Indian English.
The phone also boasts Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, apart from a high-end 8 mega-pixel camera with zero-lag shutter speed, burst shot and backlit sensor.
Galaxy S3 comes with a bigger 4.8 screen, along with 2,100m Ah battery, WiFi, 3G and is expected to be even more successful than its ancestor Galaxy S-II and other competitors in the smartphone market.
