Samsung is doing very well for itself with gadget sales, but app services like ChatON which could have raked in small change at one point of time is actually crucial to technology companies. Case in point, Google, with its ever growing share in the mobile market thanks to the penetration of Android and the applications ecosystem surrounding it.
Google got big without its very own branded hardware sales to support, although we all know that its web profits more than make up for this. The company didn’t even hold on to Motorola for long, and barely stopped in its stride to announce the surprise buy and surprise sell off to Lenovo.
Well, Samsung has been trying to slip out of Google’s grasp for some time and even seems to be hoping that Tizen will give it a lucky break. On the other side, the South Korean company is also continuously working on cross-platform software like its ChatON messenger service.
Word is that it’s in talks with Reliance Communications to deliver ChatON access at tempting rates via data bundles, the way Airtel offers free Facebook through Night Store. Samsung may have an army of mid-range to high-end Galaxy devices on its side. But it can’t reach everyone through gadgets.
India’s smartphone penetration is supposed to be at a low 20%, meaning it’s a budding market for handsets and services that accompany these. The Economic Times reports that Reliance’s 118 million subscribers could be reeled in with deals such as 100GB of free data with ChatON for a fixed period of time or something similar.
If there’s one problem that the manufacturer suffers it’s that its name is so closely associated with hardware, a lot of people may not realize they can access its apps like ChatON on any other phone. Maybe a rebranding effort is what Samsung will need to make for it to succeed in the app services market.