Samsung Electronics Co. is set to add two more models to its low-end lineup later this month as it struggles to shore up its presence in the global smartphone market amid the rise of Chinese rivals, industry watchers said Wednesday.

The world's No. 1 maker of smartphones is expected to release the Galaxy A5 in the South Korean market Thursday, about two weeks after it launched the 5.25-inch Galaxy Grand Max at home, the sources said. It will also launch the Galaxy A7 later this month.

The models cost about half as much as the flagship Galaxy S5, whose factory price here hovers around 800,000 won ($735.97).

With a 5.5-inch display, the Galaxy A7 is the thinnest smartphone ever released by Samsung. It weighs 141 grams, slightly heavier than the 123g A5 but lighter than the flagship 5.1-inch Galaxy S5 that weighs 145 grams.

With Samsung anticipated to showcase its next flagship, rumored to be the Galaxy S6, around March and April, the planned rollouts of low-end smartphones marks a rare occasion for the tech giant to introduce various models in January. Samsung only rolled out the third-generation (3G) powered Galaxy Core Advanced during the first two months of 2014.

Samsung's struggle to stay ahead of rivals continued overseas, with the tech giant ambitiously kicking off its first Tizen-powered handset in India, the Samsung Z1, for only 5,700 Indian rupees ($91.75) last week, hoping to reclaim its shares in the emerging markets.

Tizen is an open-source operating system for smart devices being promoted by Samsung, Intel, Huawei and other global tech players.

The tech giant also struggled to keep its presence in the high-end market, rolling out a new version of the Galaxy Note 4 on Wednesday, which runs on the 3-band long-term evolution advanced (LTE-A). Its factory price stands at 957,000 won.

Industry watchers said Samsung's busy schedule for this month came in response to the falling earnings experienced last year, apparently held back by the rise of Chinese players, which introduced new models that have narrowed the technology gap with the South Korean player and have more competitive price tags.

LG Electronics Inc., which has been struggling to emerge as a worthy rival comparable to U.S. Apple Inc. for Samsung, on the other hand, took an early start on the premium market and will showcase its high-end G Flex 2 at home later this week.

The G Flex 2, featuring a 5.5-inch display that curves inward from top to bottom, is slightly smaller than its 6-inch predecessor. The device was first showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month.

Equipped with a full HD plastic organic light-emitting diode (P-OLED) display, the G Flex 2 will provide users with an improved and more vivid definition compared to the original G Flex, LG earlier said. (Yonhap)