Could Galaxy S5 Let Samsung Retake the Lead in Chinese LTE Market?

Samsung Electronics launched an official event to introduce the Galaxy S5 to China, which is the largest mobile telecommunications market. It is attracting attention whether the Galaxy S5 could save the face of Samsung, that reportedly handed over the lead in the Chinese LTE market.

Samsung Electronics said on April 20 that it made a large-scale promotion for the Galaxy S5 by holding an “S5 Street Party” at Beijing Diamond Arena on April 18. In this event, movie stars Kim Soo-hyun and Jun Ji-hyun appeared on stage to promote the new smartphone.

With the official launch of the Galaxy S5, Samsung Electronics is now selling four to five models including the Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note, and Galaxy Note 2. The retail price of the Galaxy S5 is 5,299 yuan (about 883,000 won or US$850). 

The growth of China’s LTE smartphone market is unprecedented in size, so the competition among smartphone manufacturers is expected to be very fierce. 

According to market researcher Strategy Analytics (SA), the market size of China’s LTE smartphones is going to grow to 135 million phones this year, which is a 547 percent increase from the previous year. 

SA also predicted that the number of LTE phones to be sold in China will be 231 million in 2015, surpassing the number of all other types of phones being sold for the first time. It also predicts that China will consume 360 million by 2018, which means eight out of ten phones will be supporting LTE then. These numbers paint China as a market that the manufacturers cannot help but desperately defend. 

Unlike the forecast that Samsung Electronics would have an edge in the LTE market over competitors, as it has kept the number 1 position in the Chinese mobile phone market, Apple has reportedly taken the lead already.

China Mobile, the number one mobile telecommunication service provider with 760 million users, said recently that Apple is leading and expanding its LTE service. 

On March 20 (local time), WSJ reported that Xi Guohua, chairman of China Mobile, said, “We have registered 1.34 million 4G users in February alone, and most of them are iPhone users.”