Samsung's 2015 Smartphone Shipments Seen Falling From Prior Year

After years of growing its smartphone business, the Korean electronics giant is predicted to see its first year-over-year decline in shipments, according to market researcher TrendForce.

“Samsung has lost much of its shares in the low-end to mid-range markets to Chinese competitors,” TrendForce said in a report on Tuesday night. “TrendForce therefore anticipates that the vendor will see its first ever decline of annual smartphone shipments in 2015, with a 1 percent year-on-year drop and around 323.5 million units shipped.”

The company did keep its title as No. 1 smartphone brand in the third quarter, accounting for 25 percent of global shipments, TrendForce said. Apple, the No. 2 smartphone player, is expected to see growth of 16 percent from 2014, for a total of 223.7 million units.

Xiaomi will also miss its goal for the year, falling short of the 100 million target, while Huawei is expected to reach that threshold, TrendForce said.

“Xiaomi’s attempt to enter the high-end market with the pricier Mi Note series was unsuccessful, and the vendor will be returning to selling devices with high cost-performance ratios such as Redmi Note 2 and Mi 4c during the second half of 2015,” TrendForce said. “However, the vendor will be able to achieve 14.6 percent in annual shipment growth because of the contributions from its more affordable devices.”

By contrast, Huawei is seen reaching growth of as much as 40 percent year over year, to 110 million units. Korea’s LG is seen increasing its shipments about 8 percent from 2014, the research firm projected.

Overall, smartphone shipments rose 9 percent from the second quarter, fueled in part by earlier-than-normal product introductions by companies looking to get their flagship models introduced before Apple’s iPhone 6s.

The market is seen continuing to be weak until the middle of next year, though, with pressure from an increasingly saturated market combined with a decelerating global economy.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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