Samsung now finds itself at the bottom of the Chinese market.
According to market analyst firm IDC, Samsung has slowly been losing market share around the world. Especially in China where its market continues to mature and more smartphones saturate the market, major manufacturers like Samsung may witness a noticeable slowdown in their shipments.
For bigger players like Samsung, competing in foreign territories like China where homegrown companies there have gotten more and more traction, the news doesn't get any better. Since August of last year, Samsung's market shares continued to decline while Chinese smartphone makers like Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo gobbled up bigger pieces of the smartphone pie.
The latest news making the rounds on the internet is that Samsung is no longer part of the coveted list of top five smartphone vendors in China. This comes as no surprise as the Korean conglomerate has long made known that its bottomline has taken hits from increased competition, particularly in sales for low to mid-range devices.
Nonetheless, Samsung still retained its number one spot as the leader in phone shipments around the world. With a more streamlined portfolio of products, Samsung has been able to keep its lead, despite being shortened. The company's less than stellar sales of its flagship Galaxy S6 was also dragged down its position.
On the flip side, Huawei has done quite well for itself with over 15.2 percent market shares by the final quarter of 2015. Not too far behind is Xiaomi with 14.8 percent, and Apple as the only foreign company on the list in third place with 13.1 percent market shares in China. Vivo and Oppo round out the bottom two spots in the top five with 10 percent and 9.2 percent market shares, respectively.
Together, the four Chinese vendors above make up for 46 percent of the smartphone market in China. Apple, Samsung and the "others" share the remaining half or so of the pie, but unfortunately for Samsung, a year or so has made a big difference.
Up until 2014, Samsung stayed strong at the number one spot in the Chinese market. However, stiff competition and an affinity for Chinese-made products by China's consumers have pushed the Korean company further and further from the top.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
