New data from research firm TrendForce indicates that Samsung had a somewhat tough 2014. Indeed, TrendForce's information shows that despite leading the global smartphone market in 2014 by having a 28 percent market share, Samsung's dominance is slipping. As a matter of fact, the 28 percent market share is decreasing compared to 2013's 32.5 percent.
As for Samsung's main competitor Apple, its market share has remained pretty consistent over the years, even though it is still stuck on second place to the South Korean company. For 2014, Apple accounts for 16.4 percent of the global smartphone market, the same as its market share a year before.
If you are wondering who is on third place, it is Lenovo, which purchased Motorola last year. The Chinese company gets a 7.9 percent share in the market. LG follows at fourth place with 6 percent, while Chinese phone maker Huawei rounds up the top five with its 5.9 percent share.
Aside from showing the respective market shares of the leading phone brands, TrendForce's data also offers insight into the ever growing smartphone industry. The research firm found out that the total number of global shipments of smartphones continues to increase in 2014. From 927.2 million shipments in 213, the number has grown to 1.2 billion in 2014. This may be a clear sign that the industry as a whole is expanding, with more and more brands competing for market share.
That may partly explain why Samsung's market share is decreasing, even as it still holds the top spot. Chinese companies have been particularly aggressive in penetrating emerging markets, with brands like Lenovo, Huawei, Xiaomi eating some of Samsung's market share by introducing products that are low-cost but feature-heavy.
Perhaps growing competition is not the only thing that bothers the South Korean tech giant. Internally, Samsung has been dealing with ballooning marketing costs associated with promoting its new products. And it does not help that the company, by its own admission, may have offered too many smartphones models instead of focusing on key products (like what Apple has been doing). The company has since announced that it would cut the number of models it will produce for this year to 30 percent.
Despite Samsung's efforts to be more efficient in its product lineup, TrendForce believes that the South Korean phone maker will still see its market share continue to plummet when this year ends, most likely to 26.6 percent. As for Apple -- TrendForce predicts that Apple's market share will remain consistent.
