Samsung's share of China's smartphone market falls in 2015

SEOUL, Jan. 29 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. saw its presence in the Chinese smartphone industry fall on-year in 2015, data showed Friday, as local players continued to garner larger slices of the market.

The South Korean tech giant, which stood as the No. 3 player in the Chinese market in the fourth quarter of 2014, was not included in the top-five bracket for the October-December period of last year, data compiled by industry tracker Strategy Analytics showed.

The result is significant as Samsung led the global smartphone market last year by selling 391 million units, far outpacing Apple's 231 million units, with their respective market shares reaching 22.2 percent and 16.1 percent.

Industry watchers said Samsung's weak performance in Asia's No. 1 economy is attributable to the strong performance of Chinese rivals.

Xiaomi led Chinese smartphone sales last year by posting a market share of 15.4 percent. Huawei Technologies Co., another China-based tech manufacturer, followed with a market share of 14.2 percent.

Apple, which remained in the sixth spot in 2014, stood as the No. 3 player with a market share of 11.3 percent in 2015. China-based Vivo Electronics Corp. and Oppo Electronics Corp. were also included in the top-five bracket.

The rise of Chinese companies has been one of the major drags on Samsung Electronics' mobile business not just in Beijing, but globally.

The company's IT and mobile business, which is in charge of smartphones, posted operating profits of 2.23 trillion won (US$1.84 billion) in the fourth quarter, slightly rising from last year's 1.96 trillion won. But the sector's operating profit continued to remain well below the 6.43 trillion won posted in the first quarter of 2014.

colin@yna.co.kr
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