Samsung Expected to Miss 300 Million Shipment-Mark for the First Time in Nine Years

Samsung’s mobile phone shipments are estimated to be less than 300 million units this year – its lowest in nine years. According to the Chinese publication IT Home, the South Korean smartphone maker is expected to ship a total of 270 million units by the end of 2020 after shipping 189.4 million mobile phone units by the end of third quarter period (July to September). A drop in Samsung smartphone shipments could be due to a low demand globally in the first half of 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report adds that Samsung targets to ship 307 million mobile phones shipments next year of which 287 million units comprise of smartphones and the rests are feature phones.

Despite a fall in shipments, Samsung outperformed its competitors like Xiaomi and Apple both globally and in India. For instance, in the US, Samsung managed to ship the most number of smartphones in the July-September period (Q3), thereby surpassing Apple’s smartphone shipments in the country for the first time since 2017. According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung had a market share of 33.7 percent in the US in Q3 – an increase of 6.7 percentage points year-on-year basis. On the other hand, Apple that stood at the second spot had a market share of 30.2 percent followed by the South Korean smartphone company LG with a 14.7 percent share.

Similarly, the International Data Corporation (IDC) data shows that Samsung was the second-leading brand in India in Q3 2020 in terms of smartphone shipments with 22.3 percent market (12.1 million units). Xiaomi was the leading brand in the country that shipped 13.5 million units to capture 25 percent of the market share in the last quarter. Meanwhile, Samsung might be able to reach more markets in 2021 as the company is aggressively pushing its mid-range and low-end 5G smartphones. Several reports have suggested that the company is planning bring its premium smartphone features to several mid-budget phones to rival brands like OnePlus and Xiaomi.

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