A detailed report from the Nikkei Asian Review paints a gloomy picture for Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone business. The publication’s Kim Jaewon says that CEO Koh Dong-jin is under pressure to turn things around as the business loses more and more market share to Chinese competitors such as Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, particularly on their home turf, where the Korean firm used to hold a two-digit market share.
The report indicates that Samsung’s position as the global number-one smartphone vendor is under threat from these companies, who not only provide a wide range of lower-spec entry-level devices but also technology that can compete with the most advanced handsets from the likes of Samsung and Apple — at a fraction of the price.
Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 9 earlier this month.
Indeed, Xiaomi has just launched its Poco F1 smartphone, which features Qualcomm’s top-end Snapdragon 845 chipset and 8GB RAM for $430. Comparatively, Samsung’s latest handset, the Galaxy Note 9, offers the same chipset and amount of RAM, but costs $1,250 — with double the storage and a larger, more advanced display, admittedly.
According to Jaewon, the audience at Samsung Unpacked 2018 — the event where the company revealed the Note 9, amongst other new products — was anticipating more information regarding Samsung’s new foldable smartphone.
They’re still waiting, though Koh said at a press event the following day, “When we release a foldable phone in the market, I want people to say that Samsung Electronics made it really great. We are almost getting there. It won’t take that long”.
The article alludes to the hastening development of the foldable device, said to be a game-changer for the market, if for no other reason than to help Samsung hold on to the market lead that is slipping through its fingers. The company also has declining demand for smartphones in general to contend with as it attempts to solidify its position.
You can find the full article here.
