Yesterday was not the best day for Samsung. While competitor Motorola was enjoying the spoils of launching the Motorola Droid Turbo and the Google Nexus 6 Samsung were busy announcing that their third quarter operating profits were the lowest the company had seen in nearly three years. Furthermore, this also added to the belief that 2014 would soon result in its overly lowest yearly operational profit since 2011. Well, today is another day and it is looking a little brighter for Samsung. At least in terms of their tablet sales.
In spite of the overall decline in profits it seems Samsung tablets are selling well. The latest IDC report has announced the worldwide tablet market grew 11.5% in the third quarter of 2014 with 53.8 million units shipped. The IDC did attribute most of this growth to back-to-school promotions coupled with an increase in the appetite of the US for connected tablets. This was highlighted by the US market growing 18.5% in the third quarter which was substantially higher than the worldwide percentage. In terms of Samsung, they managed to hold on to being the second largest tablet manufacturer in the world. Samsung in Q3 managed to ship 9.9 million units which was only second to Apple who shipped 12.3 million. This means that in Q3 Samsung managed an 18.3% overall tablet market share again second to Apple’s 22.8%. It is worth noting that Samsung’s market share was actually down from the same quarter in 2013 by 1%. Although in comparison Apple’s decline was much more evident with a drop since last year of 6.5%. With this in mind and in spite of an actual decrease in market share compared to Q3 in 2014, Samsung managed a 5.6% year-on-year growth.
The IDC attributed much of Samsung’s ability to maintain second position and also its year-on-year growth to their newer focus towards the North American, Middle East and African markets. Although it was reported yesterday that Indian And Chinese manufacturers are costing Samsung in their home markets. The IDC reported that the same Indian and Chinese manufacturers have yet to make an impact in the North American, Middle East and African Markets, therefore allowing Samsung to take advantage and growth. So there you go. It is not all bad news for Samsung at the moment. Although their smartphone presence is being affected it does seem their tablet market is doing rather well, and more importantly in the places it was not before.
