Korean tech giant experiences decline in smartphone shipments

According to market researcher TrendForce, Korean electronics giant, Samsung is predicted to see its first year-over-year decline in shipments.

“Samsung has lost much of its shares in the low-end to mid-range markets to Chinese competitors,” TrendForce said in a report on Tuesday night. “TrendForce therefore anticipates that the vendor will see its first ever decline of annual smartphone shipments in 2015, with a 1 percent year-on-year drop and around 323.5 million units shipped.”

The company did maintain its number one title as the top smartphone brand in the third quarter, being responsible for 25 percent of global shipments, according to TrendForce.

Apple, which holds the second spot, is expected to see a growth of 16 percent from 2014 while Xiaomi is also expected to miss its goal for the year. Huawei is expected to maintain its third spot, TrendForce said.

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“Xiaomi’s attempt to enter the high-end market with the pricier Mi Note series was unsuccessful, and the vendor will be returning to selling devices with high cost-performance ratios such as Redmi Note 2 and Mi 4c during the second half of 2015,” TrendForce said. “However, the vendor will be able to achieve 14.6% in annual shipment growth because of the contributions from its more affordable devices.”

All in all, smartphone shipments rose 9 percent from the second quarter, partly boosted by earlier-than-normal product introductions by companies looking to set flagship models above Apple’s iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.