The smartphone market today has intense competition. Even the companies with the most flagships and powerful smartphones are finding it difficult to retain market share. India is one market where every smartphone brand wants to excel (Google being an exception). Samsung was one of the early movers with the Android operating system (OS) and was able to build a solid brand around the globe. The Note series and S series smartphones are a hit globally. While Samsung has been the king of smartphone shipments for the last few years, Chinese companies will soon overtake the South Korean tech giant in this aspect.
Samsung Is Losing Badly in the Mid-Range and Entry-Level Segment
Samsung hasn’t been able to compete much with Chinese smartphone makers when it comes to mid-range and entry-level segments. The company has been trying to sell its devices at a higher price than the Chinese competitors, and that is the only reason why people are siding more with the Chinese devices.
Just in terms of comparison, on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, Samsung’s global 5G smartphone sales grew by 70% in Q3 2021. While this sounds like a good number, compared to the Chinese tech giants, including Xiaomi (134% growth), Vivo (147% growth), Oppo (165%), and Realme (831% growth), Samsung doesn’t look even slightly impressive.
In the coming 5G era, the more affordable 5G devices that Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) bring, the more it is going to hurt Samsung’s business. While Samsung has been decent with its flagship devices, its mid-range and entry-level smartphones perform below par when compared with Chinese competitors in the same range. Samsung doesn’t have a branding issue (yet), but the South Korean tech giant needs to up its game and work towards offering solid devices for reasonable prices to the customers for staying in the game longer. Otherwise, it won’t be long before Samsung gets lost in the sea of smartphone companies trying to win the market.
