back to article Samsung flames out as Chinese march on

Samsung is paying the price for the Galaxy Note 7 disaster. The South Korean giant recorded its largest ever fall in global smartphone market share in Q3, Gartner reckons. “Samsung’s smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2016 as a whole declined 14.2 per cent year over year — their worst performance ever. Samsung’s previous …

  1. Tom 38
    Thumb Up

    Oppo

    Love my OnePlus2, their only problem is that its good enough that I'm not remotely interested in a OnePlus3

    1. MotionCompensation

      Re: Oppo

      And I'm still happy with my OnePlus One (trying to ignore the fact that it might be sending all my personal stuff to China).

      But... What's the link with Oppo?

      1. Sir Gaz of Laz

        Re: Oppo

        Oppo is the parent company, with BBK being the overall parent.

  2. asdf

    day of reckoning has come

    South Korea's whole culture is going through a major crisis right now. They built quite the house of cards and its collapsing a lot like Japan did in the early 90s. The whole shoving government, corporate, family and even culture into one big dung ball is falling apart. They have some major structural issues to work through and this Samsung fire thing is just yet another symptom of the root problem.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: day of reckoning has come

      This thesis needs more development!

      Japan has goen into stagflation in the early 90s (although the economy moved on underneath terrible GDP numbers) but is now being hollowed out by Abenomics (aka. obviously nonworking Suicidal Keynesian Dogma sold by Snake Oil Salesman Krugman). Add to this a toxic cultural propensity for appearance before facts incompatible with sustainable high-tech developments (evidence points are undue respect for idiots in charge, under-rugging of inconvenient happenstance, corruptions in the highest places), the move of most of previously on-island manufacturing to China, connection to the US-centric "China Containment" bandwagon and bad demographic development. It's gonna be bad!

  3. cd

    Would you mind terribly putting the stats in some kind of comprehensible and comparable format?

  4. El_Fev

    Forget shipping, who makes the most money in the Chinese market? because that's the only figure that counts.

  5. Wibble

    Falling from the tree

    Apple also continued to fall, shipping 3m fewer units than the same period a year ago, to 43m, a 13 per cent share.

    Wonder what the affect of the 7's going to have on their market share over the next few quarters. Not just the absence of a popular 3.5mm hole, but the 20% price hike.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Falling from the tree

      The 20% price hike only affects the UK, so the effect on their worldwide market share will be very minimal. I suspect the lack of the 3.5mm jack will likewise prove to be minimal, and we'll see more Android phones dropping it next year.

  6. Mage Silver badge

    14% vs 6%

    So Apple, without exploding batteries didn't do well either.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 14% vs 6%

      Q3 is still a sales comparison with the 6, which for reasons I've stated many times had specific reasons of filling untapped demand that led to it having a very large sales spike that would be almost impossible to match. We'll get a better sense of where they stand in Q1 2017 (Q4 has the release of the new model, which is always supply constrained at first, making comparisons more difficult)

  7. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    With VW & now Samsung we've seen how easy it is for a hardware brand to damage its reputation. In contrast it seems almost impossible to damage a service provider brand, say an ISP, to do the same no matter how hard they try.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "In contrast it seems almost impossible to damage a service provider brand, say an ISP, to do the same no matter how hard they try."

      A service provider falling over rarely leaves you with $30000 worth of hardware (or $700 for that matter) that is now going to be very hard to sell.

      This is partly why I think Apple wants to move to being a leaser/renter of hardware and really a service provider, especially if upgrades are built in to the annual fee. If a new model goes titsup, some customers will delay getting their upgrades. They won't be stuck with buyer remorse.

      (The other reason, same as the car industry is to keep you on the drip. Though at my main dealer the sales department don't care for me - cash buyer who replaces when necessary - but I get on fine with the service manager because I'm still nice, consistent repeat business with 2 vehicles.)

  8. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
    Flame

    pic.twitter.com

    Would it be too much inconvenience actually embedding the images in the article instead of linking to the twitter post? you know, given that El Reg is who posted the picture in the first place and not a third party.

    For the sake of those of us who can't access twitter due to corporate policy (and those of us that wouldn't access it anyway in our personal equipment)

  9. DropBear

    Just bumped into Chicken Little, he sends his regards to his mentor.

  10. Jimbo in Thailand
    Holmes

    Note 7 inferno had little to do with the "flame out"

    Yes, the Note 7 self-immolation fiasco definitely scorched sales, but the real reason Samsung is suffering market share (inside and outside of China) is that Chinese phones are now on par, quality-wise and feature-wise, with Samsung's best... BUT at half the cost... or less. I've watched this silent market-share metamorphosis unfolding for the past couple of years here in Thailand. Another contributing factor is that Samsung simply doesn't support its former flagship models (with Android upgrades) for very long. I've ranted about this before.

    Regarding Apple, I'm guessing their recent trend of offering boring innovation-lacking iDevices is a key problem. And like with Samsung, Chinese phones are on par and much cheaper so... badda-boom badda-bing... there is lower demand from 'the great unwashed masses' for severely overpriced imported premium models. The situation is only going to get worse.. or better... depending upon your perspective. I personally will go for the model offering the best bang for the buck so look forward to this continuing trend.

  11. Christian Berger

    Well... that's to be expected...

    If all companies are selling exactly the same product, you get something called "competition", which means that the company with the lowest overall price will win. The obvious solution against that is to diversify and have products that are different from the rest. However with that, there is no guarantee that those will sell well, you have to take a risk which is something modern companies cannot do.

  12. Tikimon

    Every High Tech widget follows this path

    This happens for every "high tech" product class since Digital watches, computers, automobiles, you name it. At first they were terribly expensive, owned by the affluent few, and made by a few pioneering companies. As the gadget matured, others started building them. They became products aimed at average folks instead of the rich. The price came down, and most market share went to non-luxury brands.

    Been there, does that, every time. Why does the tech world seem so surprised? Did they really believe it would be Samsung vs Apple forever?

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