2014 hasn't been the best year for Samsung. The Korean manufacturer has seen its profits decline over the last year, and its market share has been eroded in important markets like India and China in the past couple of months. Till now, details on the company's market share were based on reports from third-party analysts, but Samsung has itself confirmed that it did indeed see a drop in both market share and profit. In the first half of 2014, Samsung's market share dropped to 24.9 percent, down 1.9 percent from the same time last year, as it shipped around 223.69 million units during the first six months.
Samsung's revenues and profits also declined, with the smartphone business resulting in a drop of 19.5 percent in profit to 6.25 trillion won (US$6.11 billion), though the company did well in the TV, displays and memory businesses. As expected, the rise of Chinese manufacturers in the low-end and mid-range markets and saturation in the high-end segment are being touted as the main reasons behind the decline, and Samsung is expected to make a comeback with handsets like the Galaxy Note 4 and, to some extent, the Galaxy Alpha.
