Samsung has silently withdrawn its AI-powered Android app called Samsung Mall, that was designed and built particularly for Indian markets. Samsung Mall was built to assist customers identify products around them and make the purchase by locating them on various online shopping sites.
The application was discontinued after a period of one and a half year of its launch. Samsung Mall was introduced alongside the launch of Galaxy On7 Prime smartphone, and it was exclusively inbuilt in some hand-picked company handsets.
At the time of the launch, Samsung said that the app will complement features of its virtual assistant app named Bixby. One of the features of Bixby includes helping it’s users identify objects via photos, however, it does not enable them to make the purchase.
“The first insight in the development of the Samsung Mall was that consumers may be looking for price, color, delivery options, and more. Indian consumers want to find the best deals first. They are also not tied to any particular portal,” said Sanjay Razdan, director of Samsung India, at the time of it’s launch India Today .
Samsung had entered into partnership with Amazon, Shopclues and TataCLiQ to produce results from these retailers on it’s “one-stop online experience” app. Samsung Mall also enabled its users to make the best deal by allowing comparison between the prices of different brands.
Since March 2018, Samsung Mall was installed about 5 million times from Google Play Store in India, said Randy Nelson, Head of Mobile Insights at analytics firm SensorTower. However, it’s demand declined significantly in recent past months.
“Downloads in May totaled 275,000 — which was down 38% year-over-year from 476,000 in May 2018. It was ranked No. 1,055 by downloads in India’s Google Play store in May — down from 487 a year ago,” said Nelson.
India is one of Samsung’s largest markets and the company has built a robust R&D team in India. Samsung, which was formerly the top smartphone dealer in India, has lost the Indian market to its Chinese rival, Xiaomi. According to research firm IDC, Xiaomi has secured the top-notch position in India successively for two years.
