Samsung aims to launch more innovative products in India and is betting big on its Research and Development teams. Apparently, its Bangalore R&D has emerged to be the largest for Samsung outside Korea. Samsung's R&D team has been instrumental in wholly developing some of its products in India. In the washing machine category, Samsung’s ActivWash+ technology was developed by its Indian R&D team. It was a concept that later on became globally popular for the company.
“Project 'Dhobighat', as it was called, was conceptualised, developed and launched in India first and is now being sold across 68 countries. Our washing machine business in India grew by 30 per cent after its launch. We strongly go by customer feedback while designing our products and keep on coming up with new innovations,” Rishi Suri, director, Consumer Electronics, Samsung India told THE WEEK.
While designing its ActivWash+ technology, Samsung's team had studied India's climatic conditions and had observed that pre-treatment of clothes before putting them in the machine was a common practice in the country. The team observed that consumers would scrub the collars and cuffs separately before putting the laundry in to the washing machine. This pre-treatment took a lot of time and effort as there was no way to get this done in the machine itself. The Samsung ActivWash+ technology was aimed at giving the customers the flexibility to wash clothes the way consumers wanted it.
Interestingly, Samsung's India R&D team is constantly developing different new features for its diverse global portfolio. Samsung's R&D team, which has more than 10,000 people spread across Noida and Bangalore, work not only for Indian products, but also for the company's global portfolio. Smartphone features such as ‘Live Broadcast’, ‘Ultra Power Saving Mode’, and ‘Ultra Data Saving Mode’ have been developed by Samsung's Indian R&D team.
Samsung also recently launched an IoT (Internet of Things) enabled washing machine FlexWash in the Indian market. The machine has a washer-dryer combination that integrates two washers and a dryer into one appliance. The product, which is priced at Rs 1,45,000, offers customers the flexibility to customise their laundry routines. The units are available in 23 kg capacity to handle optimal load and has EcoBubble technology that uses air and water to dissolve detergent and creates a bubble action for cleaning clothes much faster.
“All the units of this machine are IoT enabled and the machine can be remotely controlled if a person has to leave for somewhere. As the units are integrated with Smart Control, users can operate and monitor the machine anytime, anywhere via their smartphones, letting them start and stop every cycle from the palm of their hand. There is a smart app that can be downloaded on a smartphone and users can operate their machines through that app wherever they are. IoT enabled devices are the future for us,” added Suri.
