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Samsung sings of Chinese tasty green shoots of recovery

by on20 March 2019


The smartphone business is picking up

Samsung said it is starting to see the “green shoots of recovery” in its Chinese smartphone business.

Kim Ki-nam, president and co-chief executive officer of Samsung, said its new Galaxy flagship smartphones were selling well in China and it was confident it could reverse the recent slump in its fortunes in the world’s biggest smartphone market.

Samsung’s market share has plunged from about 20 percent in 2013 to less than one percent currently as fast-growing Chinese rivals such as Huawei proved better at responding to the latest trends.

This might be because Samsung has been looking at Apple to provide innovation ideas. However, the fruity cargo cult has not come up with any – other than increasing its prices.

Samsung Co-Chief Executive DJ Koh told shareholders at the firm’s annual general meeting: “It has been tough in China in the last two years. We have changed everything from our organisation and people to distribution channels.”

“I think our flagship and mid-price models, these two products will bring a lot of change to the China market ... I am positive.”

To be fair, Samsung appears to have given up waiting for Apple has come up with some technology of its own including a big, bending screen and the first 5G connection in a premium phone, a feature analysts do not expect Apple Inc to match until 2020.

The upbeat outlook for mobile devices in China contrasts with the company’s more pessimistic take on 2019, with trade tensions, weak economic growth and softer demand for memory chips expected to weigh on operations.

“We are expecting many difficulties this year such as slowing growth in major economies and risks over global trade conflicts”, Co-Chief Executive Kim Ki-nam told the meeting.

 

Last modified on 20 March 2019
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