It hasn’t been too long since the Galaxy S5 went on sale in India, and the smartphone is subject to a price-cut in the country already. The launch price of the Samsung S series flagship was a hefty 51,500 INR or roughly US$840, which doesn’t seem to have gone all too well with the price-sensitive Indian market. The Indian market has been on the center of focus of a lot of manufacturers, international and Chinese. This is perhaps what prompted Samsung to make the Galaxy S5 available for cheaper in the country.
First OPPO and then Xiaomi threatened to grab the Indian market. Although OPPO hasn’t nearly been as successful as Xiaomi, India’s own Micromax has made sure that Samsung doesn’t get to boss about with its pricing thanks to some value deals. This includes the recently announced Micromax Canvas Nitro, which is essentially an octa-core smartphone with a very lucrative price tag. Xiaomi too managed to snatch quite a bit of the market share in India, first with the Mi 3 and then, the bestselling Redmi 1S.
In the next couple of months, India will see the launch of the coveted US$299 darling, OnePlus One (which will soon be available on pre-order) and the smart and affordable Xiaomi Mi 4, besides the large-screen Xiaomi Redmi Note which is expected to do exceptionally well. That, and the gradually reducing market share are reasons enough for Samsung to cut down on the pricing of the Galaxy S5 and its LTE variant.
For those interested, the Galaxy S5 will now cost 37,500 INR (US$610, down from US$840) and the LTE variant, 40,300 INR (US$655 down from US$870). If you’d been waiting for something like this, now seems like the best time to make the purchase. After all, talks of a Galaxy S6 have already started surfacing, and Diwali in India usually translates to some heavy discounting. Very recently, two of Samsung’s other biggest guns — the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy Alpha — too went on sale in India. Samsung is known for cutting down on pricing whenever there’s a new launch around the corner, which isn’t the case here — and it doesn’t look like this one’s going to be a one-off thing either.