Samsung Electronics is facing competition from the Chinese companies Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, whose combined smartphone market share was 20 percent globally in the second quarter of this year, industry watchers said Monday.

According to data from research firm IDC, Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone-maker, held a 22.4 percent share of the market and Apple’s share stood at 11.8 percent. Huawei took a 9.4 percent share, while Oppo had 6.6 percent and Vivo had 4.8 percent. 


When the market shares of the three Chinese firms are combined, they might be able to take the top position currently held by Samsung Electronics in the near future, if their strong growth continues, the analysts said.

“Chinese smartphone-makers are becoming a threat to Samsung by increasing market shares in their nation, which is the world’s largest smartphone market, with localized software and platforms alongside aggressive investment,” Chun Yong-chan, an analyst from Hyundai Research Institute’s Chinese economy division, told The Korea Herald.

Huawei is currently the Chinese company closing in on Samsung Electronics and Apple’s positions. Its smartphone shipments grew 25 percent in the first half on-year to reach 60 million units, mainly led by solid performance of its high-end phones such as P9, which Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson endorsed.

In June, Huawei’s consumer business chief Richard Yu ambitiously vowed to become “the number one smartphone-maker” with more than 25 percent market share within five years.

Earlier this month, news media reported that Huawei hired a former executive of Samsung Electronics’ mobile division as its vice president. This followed the Chinese tech giant’s appointment of Abigail Sarah Brody, who contributed to Apple’s iPhone interface, as its senior designer, last year.

Oppo and Vivo, which are both affiliates of Chinese electronics firm BBK Electronics, are also emerging as new rivals to Samsung. When combined, Oppo and Vivo hold more than 11 percent market share, which would put them at the third-largest smartphone-maker in the global market.

They have raised their brand profile by showing strong performance in China. In June, Oppo, which has around 200,000 brick-and-mortar stores in China, was the biggest seller in the nation with a 22.9 percent share, according to research firm Counterpoint Research.

“The key competitiveness of China’s low-end phones made by (companies) such as Oppo and Vivo is cost-efficiency because they sell their premium phones for half the price of Samsung’s and Apple’s,” said Chung Hae-sik, a senior analyst from the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)