Samsung now owns the world’s largest mobile phone factory

TL;DR

• Samsung just opened the world’s largest mobile phone factory in India on the outskirts of Delhi.
• In India, Samsung is the number two smartphone maker, under Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi.
• The new factory will nearly double Samsung’s output, thus helping compete against Xiaomi and possibly win back the top spot.

India is the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market, and now it has a factory to match that demand. Over the weekend, Samsung opened the world’s largest mobile phone factory on the outskirts of Delhi, via Bloomberg.

Although Samsung held the top spot on the list of mobile phone manufacturers in India for a long time, it was recently knocked down to the second position by Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi. This new factory could help bring Samsung back to number one.

According to a statement from Samsung, the factory will help nearly double its output of mobile devices in India from 68 million units a year to a whopping 120 million units a year. The factory will create all manners of Samsung phones, from its upcoming sub-$100 Android Go devices to its flagship Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphones.

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The factory opening attracted some notable guests, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Prime Minister Modi is credited with starting the “Made in India” initiative, which is attracting overseas investors including Xiaomi and fellow smartphone-maker Oppo.

There are 1.3 billion people in India, but its estimated that only 425 million people own smartphones. That leaves about 875 million people who could buy their first smartphone sometime within the next few years. India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market, sitting below China and above the United States.

However, Indian smartphone buyers prefer devices that cost $250 or less, due to the low average income in the country. This makes flagship devices like the aforementioned Galaxy S9 a hard sell to Indian citizens. It’s also a big reason why Apple has a small market share in India at the moment, as most of its current devices are priced well over $500.

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