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According to The Korea Herald, Samsung Electronics recently published a regulatory filing for H1 2013. The numbers they focus on are sales in specific territories. The Americas is where the company makes their most money, 26.7 percent of revenues. Next up is Asia and Africa, which are combined, but specifically excludes China. That’s at 23.3 percent. Europe is next at 21.5 percent. And then there’s China itself at 16.4 percent.
This time last year, that China number was 20.4 percent. So what’s responsible for that steep drop? Local vendors. Companies like Huawei and ZTE are the ones most people recognize for their cheap handsets, but there are others. Coolpad, Lenovo, THL, Vivo Play, and the list just goes on and on. They sell devices that have the specs of Samsung’s $500 phones for $300 or even less.
Let’s also not forget that the largest slice of the smartphone market in China are devices in the 999 RMB range, which comes out to around 160 American dollars. Local players can do a lot for that price, whereas Samsung … let’s be honest, their low end hardware is below average; that’s a compliment.
Update: Additional coverage on The Next Web.
