October 30, 2024

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Samsung Electronics remained the world’s top smartphone producer in the first quarter in terms of shipments, but its smaller Chinese rival Huawei Technologies narrowed its gap with the South Korean tech giant, an industry report showed on May 1.

According to the report by the industry tracker Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped 71.8 million units of smartphones in the January-March period, with its share standing at 21.7 percent. It, however, marked an 8 percent drop from a year earlier when the company shipped 78.2 million units. 

Other Chinese tech giants, which have been gradually narrowing their gap with traditional players on the back of their massive domestic market and price-competitive devices, also expanded their market shares during the cited period.

Huawei took up 17.9 percent of the global smartphone market by shipping 59.1 million handsets during the first quarter, compared with 39.3 million smartphones a year earlier, the report said.

“Samsung remains the world’s No. 1 smartphone vendor, but it is coming under growing pressure from Huawei, which has a larger presence in the huge China market,” Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in the report.

Apple, meanwhile, shipped 43.1 million units to capture a 13 percent global smartphone market share in the first quarter, compared with a 15 percent market share a year ago, the report said. The US tech giant lost ground in China during the quarter and is struggling to make headway in price-sensitive India.

Strategy Analytics said Xiaomi returned to fourth place, capturing an 8 percent market share in the cited quarter, followed by China-based Oppo Electronics with a market share of 7.7 percent.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)