Samsung is blowing it in China
Earlier this week, Samsung revealed that it shipped 10 million units of its latest flagship smartphone, Galaxy S6, which launched about a month ago. Considering Samsung's last flagship phone, Galaxy S5, sold - not shipped - 11 million units in its first month of release, the S6 seems to be struggling to gain steam in the market. It's unclear how many of the 10 million units shipped the S6 actually sold.
Part of the reason for this is Samsung's shrinking popularity in China, the world's largest smartphone market. According to IDC data, charted for us by BI Intelligence, Samsung owned only 9.7% of the Chinese smartphone market in the first quarter of 2015, down 53% year-over-year. Samsung gave up the top spot to Apple, whose Chinese marketshare jumped 62% in the same quarter, and Samsung is now down to 4th place, trailing Chinese vendors Xiaomi and Huawei, as well.
This is the same trend we've been seeing over the past year. Samsung's been getting squeezed by Apple and Chinese local vendors on both ends of the market. As a result, Samsung's latest profit fell nearly 30% from the same quarter of last year.
