Samsung is still king of phones

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Samsung is still king of phones

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Samsung Electronics continued to dominate the world’s smartphone market in the second quarter, but Chinese players are also quickly catching up, according to data released Tuesday by market researcher Strategy Analytics.

Samsung’s market share between April and June stood at 22.1 percent, down 0.6 percentage points from last year, though its second-place rival, Apple, also slid 0.4 percentage points to 11.4 percent.

In that same period, the combined share taken up by China’s three biggest smartphone makers - Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi - shot up 6.3 percentage points to 25.3 percent, more than Samsung’s alone.

While its market share slipped, Samsung delivered more phones in the second quarter than last year, shipping 79.5 million smartphones, an increase of about 2 percent.

“Samsung continued its recovery from last year’s Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco, lifted by robust demand for the new Galaxy S8 portfolio with an innovative bezel-less design,” said Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics. “We expect the rumored Galaxy Note 8 upgrade with a bigger screen to further strengthen Samsung in the coming weeks.”

Shipments of Apple iPhones grew just 1 percent over the year to 41 million.

“Apple’s iPhone has gone out of fashion in China, and this is placing a cap on its worldwide performance,” Mawston said. “Attention will now turn to Apple’s rumored iPhone 8 introduction later this year and whether its 10th-anniversary flagship model will be different or exciting enough to ignite a rebound in iPhone volumes for the important Q4 Western holiday season.”

Huawei, the third-biggest smartphone maker, saw its market share jump 1.3 percentage points year on year to 10.7 percent in the second quarter, just 0.7 percentage point short of Apple’s. Mawston noted that Huawei is now “closing in fast on Apple, and Apple will be looking nervously over its shoulder in the next few quarters.”

“Huawei is outperforming across Asia, Europe and Africa with popular Android models such as the P10 and Mate 9,” he added.

Notably, Xiaomi’s market share surged 58 percent year on year to capture 6.4 percent of the market in the second quarter, rejoining the top five for the first time in a year. Its range of Android phones, such as the Redmi 4A, are popular in India, snatching volumes from competitors like Lenovo and Micromax, according to Strategy Analytics.

Its recovery followed the departure of Hugo Barra, an ex-Google executive who was tasked with expanding Xiaomi’s reach beyond its native China earlier this year, according to Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics, though she did not elaborate further.

Barra took over as CEO of Oculus, a division of Facebook.

Xiaomi hopes to sustain its current momentum into the second half, Sui said.

Global smartphone shipments posted a solid 5.5 percent annual growth to 360.4 million in the second quarter.

“The global smartphone market has settled into a steady rhythm of single-digit growth this year, driven by first-time buyers across emerging markets like Africa and upgrades to flagship Android models in developed regions such as Western Europe,” Sui said.


BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun@joongang.co.kr]




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