Its price will likely be set at an affordable $100-200 range, they said.
The South Korean company chosen India as its first venue to roll out the Tizen handset as it is the world's second most-populous country with a smartphone penetration of just 20 percent of the population, the sources said.
Samsung's move comes at a time when the company faces challenges as its key profit maker, smartphones, are up against significant competition from cheap handsets produced by Chinese makers, including Xiaomi.
According to market researcher Gartner Inc., Samsung's share in the global smartphone market plunged 7.7 percentage points to 24.4 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier. Its share in China, the world's largest smartphone market, fell 28.6 percent over the cited period, according to Gartner.
Chinese makers, meanwhile, expanded their presence in the world market in the July-September period, with Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo claiming a combined 15.5 percent share, up 4.1 percentage points from the same period of last year.
Xiaomi took up a 5.2 percent share, with its sales reaching 15.7 million units, a four-fold rise from 3.62 million units tallied a year earlier, Gartner said.
Apple Inc. saw its market share rise to 12.7 percent in the third quarter, it said.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
