Well known Chinese smartphone makers Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi have pushed the South Korean tech giant, Samsung out of the world’s largest smartphone market, and Apple may be next.
According to recent data from Staistista.com, the market shares of the Chinese smartphone makers have increased dramatically since 2014, while the shares of both Samsung’s and Apple’s dropped continuously.
Samsung’s market share dropped from 12.8% in 2014 to less than one-percent by 2018, while Apple’s share dropped from 10.1% to 7.4%
Meanwhile, Huawei’s, Oppo’s, and Vivo’s market shares almost tripled over the same period—collectively holding close to 67% of the Chinese smartphone market
And there’s Xiaomi with a steady market share of roughly 13%.
Why has Samsung seen such a big decline in the Chinese market share? Analyst has suggested that this could be traceable to the fact that Samsung only primarily focuses on producing devices for the middle class, while in China, there’s a high-end market for expensive smartphones catering to the country’s emerging upper class, and a low-end market for the rest.
Apparently, Samsung’s products only catered to the middle class, failing to address either market. For this reason, the Korean giant is relocating its manifesting facilities to Southeast Asia, where it’s already facing competition by Chinese smartphone makers.
Do you think Apple might be next? share your thoughts in the comments!
