As rival Apple Inc readies a renewed push into the world’s fastest-growing market – India, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is all set to regain its smartphone share in the country with a revamped line-up packed with special features including a safety mode for motorcyclists.

Chinese brands as well as local rivals such as Micromax and Lava had been gaining market share in the price-conscious Indian smartphone market at the expense of the South Korean giant which had been a leader in the market for long.

However signs are that the global giant is gaining up on Indian market share as its share rose to 30 percent as of February this year – according to research firm Counterpoint – from 28.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 and 27.4 percent in the final quarter of 2014. Strong sales for its mid-tier products, particularly its new Galaxy J series phones is the reason attributed by the company to this success.

“Differentiated offerings are driving the trend in the mid-to-low-end segment,” said Manu Sharma, vice president of product marketing for Samsung India Electronics.

“S bike” mode, a feature targeted at India’s legions of motorbike riders that, when activated, notifies callers that the phone’s owner is riding and cannot answer for example is a recently introduced feature by Samsung.

Models with features for using less data or keeping the phone alive for longer when charging is not possible are some other draws for Indian buyers.

The J2, J5 and J7 account for nearly 20 percent of the Indian mobile market by value, say researcher GfK. Analysts say that Samsung is able to sell higher-quality phones for less due to production cost savings.

Apple holding market share of just 2 percent in the Indian market share in the fourth quarter of 2015 is struggling to gain a footing with its expensive phones even as Samsung surges in the No. 2 smartphone market behind China.

On the other hand, there are opposition to the efforts by the U.S. firm’s renewed efforts to import and sell used iPhones.

This gain by Samsung also underscores the manner in which the world’s No. 1 smartphone maker is finding its footing after a long slide. Samsung holds just under a fifth of the global market as of the end of 2015.

Analysts say Samsung is righting itself by launching more attractive products and shaving production costs to compete better on price even though it is still squeezed by Apple in the premium segment and by Chinese rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd at the lower end.

“Samsung mid-level smartphones, especially the J series, have been doing quite well in emerging countries, especially in India,” said Tarun Pathak, an analyst for Counterpoint Technology. He also noted that in the recent quarters, budget-tier products have driven volumes for the South Korean firm.

It is expected that Samsung’s earnings would be lifted by such efforts and a better-than-anticipated sales for its flagship Galaxy S7 devices. Compared with the Thomson Reuters StarMine SmartEstimate of 5.6 trillion won derived from a survey of 22 analysts, some analysts now expect Samsung’s January-March profit to top 6 trillion won ($5.2 billion).

Analysts expect Samsung’s mobile division to have been its top earner for the first time in seven quarters even though Samsung will offer no details beyond estimated January-March revenue and operating profit.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)