Samsung slips in SE Asian smartphone market

Samsung Electronics saw its dominance in the Southeast Asian smartphone market slip in the first quarter, affected by the growing popularity of Chinese budget phones, according to market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC) on Wednesday.

The tech powerhouse’s regional market share was 23 percent, down 6.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, Chinese vendors such as Huawei and OPPO both increased their shares from 3 percent to 4 percent.

“As expected, there has been significant growth in the smartphone market since cheaper models, most of which came from China and local vendors, entered the region,” the researcher said.

The figures were obtained from its Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker survey.

Despite the decrease, the smartphone maker remained the top manufacturer in both market share and shipment volume.

Apple was the second-largest player with a market share of 7.5 percent, followed by Taiwanese tech company ASUS with 5 percent, the data showed.

Samsung Electronics shipped 5.5 million smartphones in the first quarter, a 28 percent increase year-on-year.

The research firm felt positively about the rest of the year.

“The outlook for 2015 is bright and will generate lots of excitement, as established vendors defend their turf against a tidal wave of new and existing Chinese and local vendors,” the firm said in its report.

The firm also forecasted smartphone shipments in the populous region will reach approximately 100 million units in 2015, a year-on-year increase of 21 percent.

Smartphone shipments to the region recorded a year-on-year growth of 65.6 percent in the first quarter of 2015, with approximately 24 million units shipped. The boost came in large part from emerging markets in the region such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]