Samsung’s market share takes a hit

Samsung Electronics saw its global smartphone market share plunge 7.1 percentage points in the second quarter, yet managed to maintain a double-digit lead over Apple as fast-growing Chinese companies emerge as a serious threat to the two dominant players.

Samsung’s market share from April through June fell to 25.2 percent from 32.3 percent during the same period last year, market research agency IDC said Tuesday.

Apple’s share also fell by 1.1 percentage points to 11.9 percent as Chinese companies gained ground on the two market leaders. No. 3 Huawei’s market share jumped from 4.3 percent to 6.9 percent.

Huawei and other Chinese companies helped boost overall smartphone shipments globally, IDC said. About 295.3 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in the second quarter, up 23.1 percent from the same quarter in 2013.

In contrast, Samsung shipments fell 3.9 percent to 74.3 million units in the second quarter from 77.3 million last year. Apple shipments increased by 12.4 percent from 31.2 million to 35.1 million units, but that wasn’t enough to maintain the company’s market share in the face of better performances by Chinese companies.

Huawei shipped 20.3 million smartphones in the second quarter, nearly double last year’s second-quarter total of 10.4 million. For No. 4 Lenovo, shipments were up a hefty 38.7 percent to 15.8 million units to lift the company’s market share to 5.4 percent from 4.7 percent.

“As the death of the feature phone approaches more rapidly than before, it is Chinese vendors that are ready to usher smartphones into emerging markets,” IDC said in a statement. “We have more than a dozen vendors that are capable of landing in the top five next quarter. A handful of these companies currently operate in a single country.”

China’s Coolpad and Xiaomi were also in the top 10, IDC said, although it did not specify their ranking.

The success of Chinese companies in low-end smartphone markets was a major contributor to declining sales for Samsung, which estimated early this month that its operating profit in the second quarter was 7.2 trillion won ($7.03 billion), falling below 8 trillion won for the first time in two years.

The company is scheduled to confirm the guidance figures today.

Samsung’s Korean rival LG Electronics rounded out the top five, but its market share also slipped to 4.9 percent from 5 percent despite increasing its shipments by 19.8 percent from 14.5 million units last year, thanks in part to the success of the G3 that was released in May.

BY moon gwang-lip [joe@joongang.co.kr]