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Cape Town - Samsung has modernised its repair service by launching an online repair booking system designed to ease mobile repairs for consumers.
"Consumers can simply manage their repairs by logging onto the site and registering their devices. Once online, the user can access the booking form and submit the model and serial number of the device to receive a reference number," said Richard Chetty, service director at Samsung Electronics SA.
For customers who buy the latest Samsung mobile gadgets, the company offers two free repairs.
The offer is designed to attract consumers to the brand that has seen its market eroded o both ends.
In the premium segment, Samsung has faced tough competition from rival Apple which had a record fourth quarter in 2014.
Challengers
Research company Gartner reported that Apple's record fourth quarter in 2014 saw the California company beat rival Samsung in the smartphone race.
Apple sold 74.8 million iPhones in the quarter versus Samsung's 73 million, pushing its market share to 20.4% for the quarter.
"Samsung's performance in the smartphone market deteriorated further in the fourth quarter of 2014, when it lost nearly 10 percentage points in market share," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.
In the lower cost market, Samsung faces a host of challenges in its key market of China.
Samsung is in a battle for market share. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)
In particular, Lenovo, Huawei and Xiaomi all made strong sales showings in the quarter, ending with market share of 6.6%, 5.7% and 5.1% respectively.
In SA, the 2015 Student Tech Survey by World Wide Worx and Student Brands, with the support of Standard Bank, found that half of student indicated that they would like to buy an iPhone if money was no object.
According to student's practical intentions, 43% indicated they would buy a Samsung phone next, with the iPhone coming in second at 17%, followed by Nokia at 11% and BlackBerry still making a showing at 10%.
Samsung leads many other South African manufacturers with its online booking form.
Samsung also have repair centres in major South African centres while many rivals continue to persist with one repair centre often located in Johannesburg and passing the courier cost on to consumers.
Follow this link to book your Samsung device in for repair.
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