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Samsung recently held a BGMI tournament inviting the likes of MortaL, Techno Gamerz, and more. The tournament was dubbed the Play Galaxy Cup Z Fold Edition 2024 and was played on the company's latest launch—the Z Fold6. After a competitive back and forth, Jonathan Gaming and his team managed to secure victory.
During the event, I got the chance to speak with Aditya Babbar, Samsung VP at Hotel Pullman in New Delhi. He shared his thoughts regarding the Indian market and how the new launch will empower the masses.
Aditya Babbar, VP at Samsung, talks about the new Z Fold6 and its features to attract the Indian market
Q: Among the Z Fold6 and the Z Flip6, which one is your personal favorite?
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Aditya Babbar: I love large screens, so for me, I would say Z Fold6. But both happen to be my babies so I love both of them.
Q: Z Fold6 lands on the premium section of smartphones. Do you think the Indian community is ready for the likes it?
Aditya Babbar: We see that today India is very very aspirational. What we see is that the consumer is adapting to the premium end of the market. We see the Z Fold being adopted a lot by consumers. What we have done around that is to understand the consumer needs and when the buying pattern happens.
We see there are three different kinds of consumers. One, the consumer is very very aspirational but he wants affordability to be built in. So we have more affordable platforms for them to adapt to. Then we have some consumers that want to buy on cards but they want cashback instead. The third type of consumer is that they want to trade in their old phones.
What we have announced with the Fold6 is a 15k trade-in bonus. So as a Fold5 consumer, I can actually upgrade to a Fold6 for just 75000 INR.
Q: Samsung is already a household name in India. Is the gaming community the next segment where we'll see more expansion from your company?
Aditya Babbar: At the core of whatever we do at Samsung is the consumer. We want to be humble and we want to understand what are the core needs of the consumer, empowering them to do more and be more every day. That's our mission.
We feel that we are our biggest competitor. If we keep innovating and doing the right thing for the consumer in the long run we will benefit.
Q: You said you are your biggest competitor. Samsung was the pioneer in the folding smartphone segment. If we see the Samsung Fold series, what is the big step we have taken from Fold5 to Fold6?
Aditya Babbar: With every Fold we have brought something very very strong to the market. When I see the fundamentals of Fold, we unfolded with Fold one but with every generation we have brought innovations, which have helped people to do better with the devices.
Our foldables are IP-rated. Our foldables come with pen support. Our foldable comes with a very, very strong processing power. So with every foldable, we have worked a lot on the basic structural aspects of the device and then added AI.
(Aditya Babbar then handed me Samsung Fold5 and Fold6 to hold)
If you just hold them in your hand the answer is there. What has changed? It is lighter, it is slimmer, it is brighter, it is more powerful, and it comes with Galaxy AI. So that's what has changed.
Q: The gap between the Galaxy S and Z series is minimized, with the foldables being superior to the flagship lineup in some ways. Do you see a future when the Z series will overtake the S series?
Aditya Babbar: True to our principle of openness, we will continue to innovate for the consumers. Both the devices happen to have a very, very strong foundation and need set.
We see a lot of S users being creators and doing a lot of editing work. I have seen a lot of my media friends using S Ultra while shooting, and then quickly editing and sending it. Whereas I see a lot of my friends from the business end using a Z Fold.
So I think the need set of citizens is the core of what we do. Interestingly, gaming cuts across both of them and happens to be a very, very large community. For the gaming end, I think both (S Series and Z Series) will keep competing. But on the other end, they have very well-defined use cases and the need set for expression.
