Dubai: Samsung smartphone sales are going to get a boost with the mobile to mobile video calling feature available only on their handsets that do not require Wi-Fi or 3G connection.
Mobile to mobile video calls are working in the UAE as long as they have a Samsung smartphone running on an Android platform and on certain mobile numbers.
Industry players have tested it on du’s network also and it has worked well.
Nadeem Khanzadah, head of OmniChannel Retail at Jumbo Group, said that the mobile to mobile video calling facility will definitely benefit Samsung’s smartphone sales in the UAE as most of the video calling facilities which use VoIP are banned in the country. Most of the video calling facilities do not work half the time as they are officially blocked.
According to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the UAE, VoIP (Voice over internet Protocol) services can only be offered in the UAE by licensed providers — etisalat and du.
“As this [video call] feature is working fine in the country, it will give a tremendous boost to Samsung phone sales. Samsung handsets are facing pressure in all the segments — cheap Chinese phones in the low end; branded Chinese phones in the mid end and Apple in the high end. Any competitive advantage will give a boost to its sales,” he said.
Samsung was not available for comments at the time of going to press.
Higher calling rates
Niranjan Gidwani, deputy CEO of Eros Group and the main distributor for Samsung mobiles in the UAE, after testing the feature on his du’s network, said that this feature will definitely give a boost to Samsung sales amid higher calling rates.
Sukhdev Singh, vice-president at market research and analysis services provider AMRB, said that the facility will certainly generate some traction for Samsung phone sales in UAE.
“Users would want to have this feature, though it may not get used a lot as such. However, one expects higher usage among low-income workers for calling back home. The best part of the proposition for them is that they don’t have to buy a data plan,” he said.
Given the significant share of market that Samsung enjoys, he said that this feature, which works only on Samsung phones, is likely to benefit the sales in more ways than less.
When asked whether the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the UAE will block this feature, he said that he does not think this will get blocked as operators are making legitimate calls, and consumers pay the operator for the service they use.
“In case of VoIP calls, like Skype and Viber, which are blocked in UAE by TRA, the reason is that it causes direct loss to UAE’s telecom sector,” he said.
Other Android smartphone manufacturers haven’t included this feature on their devices.
The normal Wasel prepaid calling rate is 0.6 fils per second or 36 fils per minute locally while the video calling rate is 60 fils per minute.
