Samsung sales "bad to see" reason: Millet rapid growth of the Nova

Last week, Samsung's chief financial officer, Li Xiangxun Leesanghoon, warned that Samsung's second-quarter results would not be too good, according to foreign media reports. Samsung did not explain why, but the weakness of handset sales could be the culprit, given Samsung's reliance on profits in the handset business sector. If Samsung's mobile phone business is really in trouble, it may be related to the rapid growth of a major competitor. Earlier this week, Millet said handset sales rose by 271% in the first half of the year. The rapid growth of millet has even challenged Apple, which seeks to grow overseas. Millet: China's fast-growing Nova Millet, founded more than 4 years ago, has attracted many big-name executives, the biggest of which is Google's Hugo Hugobarra, which has caused a stir in China's mobile phone market. Kantarworldpanel, a market research firm, reported that the April sales of Millet smartphones exceeded Samsung, a noteworthy phenomenon, given that Samsung has been the country's first-ever expert maker in the last few quarters. The success of Millet is largely a by-product of its low-priced handsets. Millet flagship Model 3 is a high-end smartphone, in the Chinese market price is only about 300 U.S. dollars (about 1849 yuan). Given that household income is only thousands of dollars a year, the millet handset is quite attractive to ordinary Chinese consumers. TechCrunch, a blogger who eats up Samsung's technology blog, says many of its customers are buying smartphones for the first time, but about One-fourth are Samsung mobile users. Like Samsung, the Millet smartphone uses an Android operating system. The millet version of Android is a highly customizable Android version, but it has little impact on product sales. Few consumers in China really use Google's official googleplay, which downloads Android apps mainly through Third-party app stores. Apple seeks growth in the Chinese market given its exclusive use of the iOS operating system, Apple is less likely to be eaten by millet in China or other markets than Samsung. But Millet still poses a threat to Apple's emerging market ambitions. While Apple has a firm grip on the markets of developed countries such as the US and Japan, analysts are turning to China and other markets to boost iphone demand. To a large extent, emerging markets are driving up demand for the iphone. Apple's iphone sales surpassed analysts ' expectations in the previous quarter, largely because of record demand in emerging markets. Apple's China business, for example, grew 5% per cent in the quarter, and Apple executives said the company's total revenues in the BRICS had hit new highs. Investors may think of the millet handset as a low-end product, a transitional product for Chinese consumers who will eventually buy an Apple iphone. The reality is that the millet mobile phone is quite high-end, for example, the Rice 3 configuration can be comparable with Apple iphone5s. If millet continues to attract Chinese consumers for the first time to buy smartphones, it will be difficult for Apple to lure them into a backlash. If millet enters other emerging markets, it will be on Apple, threeThe star poses a powerful competitive threat. Unfortunately, Millet is not a listed company and public investors are unable to share the fruits of their rapid growth. Smartphone makers--especially Apple and Samsung shareholders--should be mindful of the rapid growth of millet. In emerging markets such as China, Millet is a major competitive threat to Samsung and Apple.