China is one of the most lucrative smartphone markets on the planet but Samsung has been facing challenges in retaining its lost glory. Most of its troubles can be attributed to strong competition from local manufacturers. The political tensions between China and South Korea aren't helping as well because it leads many to shun the company's products.
The latest data from Counterpoint Research shows that Samsung's smartphone market share in China for the second quarter of this year is at 3 percent. Chinese smartphone manufacturers are firmly in the lead with a combined 87 percent market share. The top four brands in China include Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi.
Huawei and Vivo were the fastest growing brands in China during the second quarter followed by Oppo and Xiaomi. They continue to extend their lead over Apple and Samsung. Apple is the only foreign company with a decent share of the country's smartphone market.
Apple accounted for 8.2 percent of the market in the second quarter, almost unchanged from 8.5 percent last year. On the other hand, Samsung's market share has declined from 7 percent in Q2 2016 to just 3 percent in this past quarter.
Clearly, the company needs to do more in order to win more customers in the fiercely competitive Chinese smartphone market.
