Samsung's market share tops Apple in Q2, but feels the pressure from Chinese makers
Despite commanding 26.8% of smartphone shipments in Q2, against 16.4% for Apple, Samsung is facing headwinds for the remainder of the year, according to research firm TrendForce. Not only is smartphone sales growth stagnating, forecast to be just 8.2% this year, compared to 26.5% for 2014, but it is reaching a plateau, too, and "vendors are likely to face serious challenges when shipping their products in the near future," comment the analysts.
Shrinking overall market pie is not the only worry for Samsung, however, as the up-and-coming Chinese vendors are nibbling away at its offerings on the low- and mid-range ends, with Huawei projected to be the first phone maker there to hit 100 million handsets shipped for the year. Despite that it's on the way to miss its 100 million target, Xiaomi is also doing pretty well, shipping 34 million handsets in the first half, and becoming the fourth largest phone maker in the world. Out of the Chinese brands, Lenovo's ragtag product positioning and model portfolio has pushed it down to sixth place, and at least 20% decline in shipments is expected with it.
As for Apple, TrendForce reiterates that the upcoming iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will have enough novelties in them to offset the fact that the design will stay the same. The research firm cites the new A9 processor as an advantage, plus a 12 MP camera and the Force Touch screen tech, as well as the fact that it will be the first time Apple will ship its gear with 2 GB LPDDR4 memory. Apple's iPhone shipments are thus expected to grow at least 15% this year.
source: TrendForce via CNET
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