Shrinking Market Share
Samsung Electronics' share of the global smartphone market fell below 30 percent in the third quarter of this year. In contrast, Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi Technology narrowed the gap with their Korean rival.
According to data on global smartphone sales in Q3 published by market research firm Gartner on Dec. 15 (local time), Samsung made up 24.4 percent of the smartphone market by selling 73.21 million units worldwide, which put the firm in the top spot.
However, the sales volume decreased by more than 7 million units when compared to its 80.36 million units sold in Q3 2013. Its share shrank by almost 8 percent from the 32.1 percent of the previous year. A total of 310 million smartphones were sold during the period, a year-on-year increase of 60 million units. Therefore, Samsung's poor performance appears to be more serious.
Apple, on the other hand, showed an upward trend, helped by the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+. It sold 38.19 million units in Q3, up nearly 8 million units from a year ago.
Chinese handset makers' exponential growth was also noticeable. Huawei, which napped the third position in the market, sold 15.93 million units, a year-on-year gain of 4.26 million units. Xiaomi also became the fourth-largest smartphone vendor, thanks to a sudden increase in smartphone sales from 3.62 million to 15.77 million units.