Samsung smartphone sales to China fall 60% year on year 
Samsung's smartphone sales in China fell by 60% year on year in the first quarter to about 3.5 million units, primarily because of aggressively priced local competition from Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, according to Hong Kong-based market research firm Counterpoint. The political backlash against South Korea was also a factor. Huawei, Oppo and Vivo increased sales and also market share in China in Q1 with Oppo’s shipments growing 81% year on year, while Vivo’s and Huawei’s grew 60% and 25% respectively. There are hopes that sales of Samsung's new Galaxy S8 may bring some recovery.
Samsung is not doing all that great in China it seems, at least according to the latest data provided by Counterpoint Technology Market Research company. According to Counterpoint, Samsung’s smartphone sales have dropped by more than half in China in the first quarter of this year, we’re talking about Year-on-Year (YoY) results here, of course. Samsung managed to lose quite a bit of market share, in favor of mainly Huawei, OPPO and Vivo.

Counterpoint Technology Market Research says that Samsung’s Year-on-Year (YoY) shipments dropped around 60%, to around 3.5 million units in the first quarter of this year. The company’s market share also dropped significantly, from 8.6 percent, down to 3.3 percent. Now, for comparison’s sake, Huawei, OPPO and Vivo managed to increase their sales and also market share in China. OPPO’s shipments grew 81 percent YoY, while Vivo’s and Huawei’s grew 60 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Huawei managed to grab the no. 1 spot in China in Q1 2017 with a 19.7 percent share, while OPPO and Vivo followed with 17.5 percent and 17.1 percent, respectively. “Oppo and Vivo were the fastest growing brands followed by Huawei, together cementing the top three spots and extending their lead over Apple, Xiaomi and Samsung by a widening margin,” said Neil Shah, researcher over at Counterpoint Technology Market Research company.

Industry analysts claim that sales in China were driven by their affordable price points, and that’s completely understandable, as that was the case in the past as well. Samsung’s devices cannot compete with Chinese companies when it comes to pricing, and it will surely be interesting to see what will happen at the end of second quarter of this year, will the Samsung be able to improve its position in China? Well, quite probably, at least a little bit, as the Galaxy S8 sales should kick in at least a little bit in China, and thus improve the company’s position in that Asian market. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus have been selling really well for the company in a number of markets around the world, and Samsung is expecting some success with the device in China as well, which is completely understandable.