Samsung’s smartphone sales have taken a tumble with the Korean giant reporting a 4% decline compared to a year ago.
Recently arch rival Apple reported its quarterly earnings and sales results, iPhone sales jumped 12.7 percent from a year ago with BRIC Countries including China and Russia contributed to the increase in smartphone sales for Apple.
The new Samsung market share figures reveal that the Korean phone giant lost ground to upstart Chinese manufacturers after several years of headlong growth, according to figure from IDC.
The research firm said Samsung’s smartphone sales fell even though the quarter saw the launch of Samsung’s latest top-flight model, the Galaxy S5. Its share of the global smartphone market fell 7 percentage points to 25 percent.
AP said that Samsung reported its quarterly results three weeks ago however they did not provide smartphone sales figures at the time, Several analysts are now claiming that it is evident that the Samsung sales machine has stalled. Operating profit declined, and Samsung said sales of medium- and low-end smartphones were weak in China and in some European countries because of stronger competition and sluggish demand.
China’s Huawei, the world’s third-largest phone maker, saw no corresponding slump in its home market. Its smartphone sales doubled in the quarter to 20.3 million units. Huawei has been selling low-end smartphones in Australia. for some time, and wants to break into the high-end market.
ChannelNews understands that Telstra will start ranging the Huawei Media Pad X1 7.0 shortly while Optus and Vodafone expanding their Huawei smartphone range.
IDC’s Melissa Chau said Chinese manufacturers like Huawei and Lenovo have a “precarious competitive advantage” right now because they can sell better phones than local competitors in emerging markets at low price points.
