It's true that Samsung's mobile business didn't have a good year in 2014. The company's market share came under increasing pressure from the likes of Apple and even upcoming OEMs in emerging markets. Samsung is hoping to turn its fortunes around with the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge but they don't seem to be enough to convince Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster, who predicts that Samsung is going to get “slaughtered” in the next five years.
In a recent interview with Business Insider, McMaster said that tier one OEMs like Samsung “are going to be the next generation Nokias in the next five years. They're going to be slaughtered.” He believes even Apple will face this problem down the road since it isn't good at competing in the low end segment of the market. He goes on to elaborate on why he thinks Samsung might meet this fate. McMaster points towards the rapid downfall of Research in Motion (RIM) a.k.a BlackBerry and Nokia. He also points out that Micromax needed eight months to leave behind Samsung and become the most popular feature phone player in India. A recent report even suggested that in Q4 2014 Micromax has surpassed Samsung as the largest smartphone vendor in India. “This is just one market. We see this happen all over the world,” the Cyanogen CEO says.
