Samsung's smartphone market share has already been shown to have taken a hit in the last year, and a new report has revealed that the Korean manufacturer has actually been superseded by Xiaomi in China in the second quarter. According to Canalys, Xiaomi now holds 14 percent of the Chinese smartphone market, compared to Samsung's 12 percent, which has dropped from 18.3 percent during the same time period last year. Unsurprisingly, the combination of good hardware and low pricing has helped Xiaomi lure a lot of consumers in the past few months, and its growth has been rather impressive in the span of 12 months, jumping from a mere 5 percent in 2013 to nearly 15 percent this year.
Samsung will likely continue to see a drop in market share in the coming months unless it can turn around its strategy and start offering better value to consumers for the prices its devices carry. The company has pinned hopes on the Galaxy Note 4 and a device with “new materials” (likely the Galaxy Alpha) to turn its fortunes around, but current market trends indicate that big changes will be necessary if Samsung wishes to stay at the top of the game, including a much larger focus on the mid-range and low-end segments.
