Sales of New Phones Sluggish
Samsung Electronics' smartphone shipments are projected to fall short of 300 million units this year for the first time since 2013.
According to market research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) on September 9, Samsung's smartphone shipments were expected to reach 298.5 million units this year. The SA predicted that Samsung's shipments would drop sharply in the third quarter following the second quarter due to the sluggish sales of the Galaxy S9, a new model released this year, and the price competitiveness of smartphones made by Chinese companies.
Specifically, the Korean smartphone giant’s shipments in the second quarter of this year reached 71.5 million units, down from 79.5 million units in the same period of last year, and its shipments in the third quarter are tallied at 75.6 million units, significantly lower than last year's 83.4 million units. Samsung has shipped more than 300 million units a year since 2013 when it shipped 319.8 million units, but this year, the company is not sure about reaching 300 million units.
Samsung has been pushing hard to increase sales of the recently released Galaxy Note 9. However, it is too early to say whether the company will be able to attain its sales target this year due to aggressive sales campaigns by Chinese companies that are trailing Samsung with various smartphones with high cost-performance ratios and strong price competitiveness. Apple is expected to launch a new product on September 12, and Huawei will launch a new product for the premium phone market in October to escape from its image as a maker of low-priced phones. Therefore, an uphill battle is ahead of Samsung.
SA said that the world's top five companies except Samsung Electronics -- Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo -- are expected to ramp up their smartphone shipments this year. Apple shipped 215.8 million units last year but is expected to ship 296 million units this year. In the same period, SA's analysis projected that Huawei would increase its shipments from 153 million to 199.4 million units, Xiaomi from 91.3 million units to 127.7 million units, and Oppo from 118 million units to 120.3 million units.
In the meantime, Samsung Electronics is expected to retain its leading position with a 20.2% market share this year. SA predicted that Apple and Huawei would chalk up 14.8% and 13.5% market shares, respectively.