Samsung may still be the number one manufacturer of smartphones in the world, but its numbers in China are not looking the best for Q2 2017, according to reports out of the company’s home country. In fact, from the same quarter last year the company dropped no fewer than two spots to take the number six position in that market, with reports saying the company only maintained brand loyalty among 7.2 percent of its previous customers. Meanwhile, the shift could be attributable to two aspects of the Chinese market itself – namely that high-end devices are not favored by the country’s customers and that those customers are looking to local brands first when making smartphone purchases.
According to the source, reports suggest that Chinese customers are looking first for value when they make a purchase, with cost versus performance and features being the first aspect of a device considerations are made for. That makes sense since Chinese brands have been consistently putting out high-quality products at a fraction of the cost over the past several quarters. Making matters worse for Samsung, that’s in combination with a trend among members of the country’s younger generation. Users falling into the 16 to 25 age bracket have shown more consideration and favoritism for budget-friendly or mid-range devices, as opposed to premium devices. Backing that up, the rate of smartphones sold within the market during the quarter, priced at below $305.60 on average, is as high as 63 percent. Meanwhile, premium phones, such as Samsung’s newest devices, costing more than $600, only accounted for around 6.4 percent of the total sales throughout the quarter – with iPhone representing the bulk of those high-end premium sales. Samsung’s high-end devices, which is where most of its marketing efforts end up focused, go far beyond that price point.
As to the numbers, Samsung managed to move just over 48 million Samsung-branded phones by the end of the quarter. Meanwhile, Apple took number one with 171 million of its iOS devices sold. That’s followed by well known Chinese brands such as Huawei and Oppo, which moved 132 million and 124 million handsets respectively. That’s followed by Vivo, which recorded 108 million smartphones, and Xiaomi, which fell in with 68 million units sold.