Samsung accounts for 10 pct of global feature phone market in Q3: report

SEOUL, Dec. 9 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. accounted for 10 percent of the global feature phone market in the third quarter of the year, a report showed Wednesday, amid the decline of the sector.

Global feature phone shipments declined 17 percent on-year to 74 million units in the July-September period, according to market researcher Counterpoint Research.

Samsung had a 10 percent share in the feature phone market in the third quarter, sharing third place with China's Tecno Mobile, a subsidiary of Transsion Group.

Another Transsion brand, iTel, led the feature phone market with a 24 percent share, followed by Finnish phone maker HMD Global with a 14 percent share, data showed.

By region, Samsung was the second-largest vendor in India with an 18 percent share, only behind iTel, which had a 22 percent share. India was the second-largest feature phone market, representing 36 percent of the global feature phone shipments in the third quarter.

In the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, the largest market for feature phones, Samsung came in fourth with only a 2 percent share.

When it comes to the smartphone sector, Samsung was the world's largest vendor with a 22 percent market share in the third quarter, beating China's Huawei Technologies by 8 percentage points.

Counterpoint Research data showed Samsung's third-quarter smartphone shipments reached 80.4 million units in the third quarter, up 3 percent from a year earlier.

The South Korean tech giant led major smartphone markets except in North America and Asia, where Apple Inc. and Huawei remained the top players, respectively.

kdon@yna.co.kr
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