Samsung faces stiff competition ahead

SAMSUNG FIRMLY established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the mobile market in 2011. Its phone shipments topped 300 million for the first time and, after months of snapping at Apple’s heels, strong sales of Galaxy handsets pushed Samsung ahead of Apple in mobile shipments in the third quarter.

But there may be more competition in the offing, with both Huawei and ZTE looking to the European market to expand in the Android sector.

At Mobile World Congress, both Chinese companies showed off their wares in the shadow of Samsung’s enormous stand, facing off against the electronics giant across the aisles.

Both firms are ready to step into the spotlight. Planning an assault on the European market, Huawei showed off some quad-core phones and tablets – the Ascend D and MediaPad 10 FHD grabbing both headlines and the attention of congress attendees.

ZTE, meanwhile, is hoping to become the third largest handset seller by 2015, targeting Europe, Japan, the US and China. Its main weapon is the Android 4.0 Era smartphone, a quad-core phone described as one of the thinnest available on the market today.

“ZTE has already gone some way towards its dream of breaking the top three as the company’s terminal shipments grew by 50 per cent in 2011 and achieved a 400 per cent increase in smartphone shipments, albeit from a small base, worldwide,” said Informa Telecoms and Media analyst David McQueen.

“This new, wide range of devices and user features should help the company drive that momentum, notably in the mid- to high-end, into 2012 and beyond.”

As a result, McQueen believes ZTE may achieve its 2015 goal even sooner.

Although Samsung skipped the quad-core bandwagon, the company still had a few tricks up its sleeve. Last year, it made a splash at Mobile World Congress with the Galaxy S II handset and its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. This year, it announced the Samsung Beam, a mobile phone with a built-in projector for multimedia content.

But its big announcement was the Note 10.1. Joining the line-up of Android tablets, the Note is also compatible with a stylus, known as the S pen. Samsung was really getting behind the Note. The majority of its stand was taken up with advertising and pushing the Note, while the 5.4-inch version also got a good showing.

The company also announced the Android 4.0 Galaxy Tab 2, which will come in 7-inch and 10.1-inch sizes, and goes on sale this month. Samsung’s approach to Android appears to have been successful, for now at least.

According to Gartner, its share of the global phone market is now at 17.7 per cent, marginally higher than 2010 and way ahead of ZTE and Huawei’s 3.2 and 2.3 per cent respectively. Apple remains third with 5 per cent.

However, although Android remains the top smartphone operating system, the figures also showed that Apple remained the top smartphone seller in 2011, with a 19 per cent market share.

And in the fourth quarter of the year, ZTE and Huawei were the fastest-growing smartphone sellers after Apple, as the firms expanded their market reach.

ZTE moved into fourth place in the global handset market during the quarter, with a 4 per cent market share, doubling its share in a year.

Samsung may be facing some stiff competition in the months ahead.