A new study by consumer insight company – Kantar Worldpanel (via South China Morning Post), finds Samsung‘s popular Galaxy line of smartphones helped the company maintained the largest share of the Chinese mainland’s mobile market this year, while Apple saw a decline in their market share.
According to the report, Samsung and Xiaomi are the big winners in China‘s smartphone market this year. Apple’s sales this year have lagged behind the competition, and its market share dropped from 19.5 per cent in the second quarter of the year to 18 per cent in the third.
“Galaxy S3 and S4 models have been especially popular, as has been the Galaxy Note 2, a phone and tablet hybrid sometimes referred to as a “phablet“,” report said. This suggests that Apple would likely benefit from an iPhone with larger display and a deal with China Mobile.
The drop in market share was also attributed to consumers holding out for the new models of iPhones.
“The culprit might be the launch of iPhone 5s [and] 5c on September 20,” the report said. Since at the beginning of the third quarter, consumers were eagerly waiting for the launch of the next generation iPhone and stopped purchasing existing models, holding back sales.
