Samsung's Share Falls Below 1%
Samsung Electronics failed to boost its share of the mobile phone market in China above 1 percent last year. The company’s market share in China stood at 20 percent in 2013, but fell to the zero-percent level in five years.
Samsung Electronics sold 3.4 million smartphones in China last year, posting a 0.8 percent market share, according to Strategy Analytics (SA), a market research firm.
While Samsung Electronics' market share was shrinking, the top four Chinese companies increased their combined share to 80 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
For the whole of last year, Huawei secured the largest market share with 25.8 percent, followed by Oppo (20.3 percent), Vivo (19.5 percent) and Xiaomi (12.1 percent). They were followed by Apple (8.2 percent).
Samsung’s poor performance in China is threatening to drag the company down from first place in the global smartphone market. Samsung recorded an 18.4 percent market share in the fourth quarter of last year, barely beating Apple (17.5 percent) and Huawei (16.1 percent) to become the leader in the global smartphone market.
Samsung Electronics is determined to increase its presence in China, the world's largest smartphone market, but the Korean smartphone giant is facing an uphill battle. Chinese makers are pushing for innovation in addition to lower prices.
In December last year, Samsung Electronics launched its budget smartphone Galaxy A8s, the first Galaxy smartphone to feature a hole-in display. At a launching ceremony, Kwon Gye-hyun, vice president of Samsung Electronics China, emphasized, "We will compete again in the Chinese market with the Galaxy A8s." In November last year, Samsung launched the Galaxy A6s, the first Galaxy model to be produced under an original design manufacturing (ODM) contract.
Huawei led the multi-camera trend with the P20 series last year, and immediately released the Nova 4 with a hole-in display against the Galaxy A8s in December last year. The company will show its first 5G foldable phone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which will kick off in Barcelona this month.