Samsung mobile phone Asia market is in crisis: Chinese and Indian users love the local brand

The Wall Street Journal reported signs that Samsung's lead is waning in Asia's two fastest-growing mobile-phone markets, China and India. This is mainly due to the fact that consumers in these countries are turning to local brands. In the second quarter, Samsung was no longer the number-one handset maker in India, but was informatics by India's local brand, counterpoint Technology Market research company, a data provider based in Hong Kong, said in Tuesday. The latter was only 5 years old. Canalys, another market research firm, also released data in Tuesday, showing that Micromax's sales share in India's handset market was 17.5% in the second quarter, above Samsung's 15.1%. But if only smartphones are considered, Samsung is still ahead. Earlier this week, Canalys said that Millet had surpassed Samsung to become China's number one smartphone maker. The second quarter, millet in China's market share of 14%, more than Samsung and Lenovo, the latter two companies have a market share of 12%. In the second quarter, the market share of millet grew markedly. In the first quarter, the market share of Millet and Samsung was 10.7% and 18.3% respectively. These figures reflect a negative trend for Samsung. The Wednesday Star report said net profit fell 20% in the second quarter. This is the first time in nearly 3 years that Samsung's quarterly profit has fallen year-on-year. Samsung declined to comment on the latest data. With aggressive marketing and branding initiatives, Samsung remains the number-one smartphone maker in Southeast Asia. But according to Counterpoint, Samsung's share of the market in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam has declined in the past year, with a population of about 360 million. In the Philippines and Thailand, Samsung is still ahead of local manufacturers and rivals in global markets such as Apple (95.12,-0.47,-0.49%). But over the past year, Apple's share of these markets has increased. Jessica Guo Jessica Kwee, an analyst at Canalys in Singapore, said: "Overall, Samsung is under a lot of pressure in the low-end market in India and China." Samsung, she notes, is facing competition from local brands in these markets, which are trying to offer more cost-effective products. The competition from these companies will continue to put pressure on Samsung's profitability. In the second quarter, Samsung's mobile operating margins fell to 15.5%, down from 17.7% in the same period last year. This is the minimum profit margin for the business since the end of 2011. This situation is partly due to competition, partly because of Samsung's own problems. In China, in particular, Samsung suffered from poor inventory management, resulting in an oversupply of 3G smartphones. At present, Chinese consumers are beginning to choose 4G mobile phones gradually. Counterpoint's monthly data showed that Samsung's market share in China peaked in February this year, followed by a steady retreat and fell to about 17% in June. Lenovo and Huawei lag behind Samsung'sThe range is not very large, and two companies are about 14%.