Samsung Is Losing The War For Australia’s Dollars As New Players Gain Ground

Australia loves its Android phones, especially those made by market-leader Samsung. But is the gadget giant losing ground? New figures say yes, and see players like HTC and other entrants gaining precious market share.

Numbers provided to our sister site, Business Insider in an emailed statement from Kantar Worldpanel, one of the world’s leading authorities on smartphone and telco market share, show the scope of Samsung’s problem.

In the quarter-ending July 2013, Samsung held 43.2 per cent of Australia’s smartphone market in its hands. Figures showing the lay of the land for quarter-ending July 2014, however, show a backslide in the South Korean gadget giant’s grasp on the Australian market. It dropped 2.6 percentage points off its market share, down from 43.2 per cent to 40.6 per cent in just 12 months.

The numbers show that new players in the market are taking the market share away from Samsung, with phones from Other manufacturers increasing from 4.3 per cent in the quarter-ending July 2013 up to 8.7 per cent in the quarter-ending July 2013.

The entry of Chinese manufacturer like Huawei, Oppo and ZTE appears to have shown the market that users don’t have to pay upwards of $800 for powerful smartphones in 2014.

The figures also demonstrate a meaningful uptick in HTC’s numbers, with the Taiwanese vendor improving its standing from 7.3 per cent of the market to 7.8 per cent in just 12 months. The rise is clearly off the back of a simplified devices strategy being pushed by the financially troubled vendor in phones such as the HTC One M8 and One Mini 2.

Even Samsung’s bitter rival, Apple, is gaining ground; albeit in smaller numbers than Cupertino might like. Apple increased its share from 26.9 per cent in 2013 to 27 per cent in 2014.

Samsung’s decline comes after an intensive marketing campaign pushing Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and a new range of wearable gadgets.

It’s unclear whether the release of two new Galaxy Note devices with luxury partnerships from the likes of Mont Blanc and Swarovski will arrest the fall, but with today’s release of the iPhone 6 Plus — a 5.5-inch smartphone aimed squarely at Samsung’s class-leading phablets — the manufacturer will likely be in for a smartphone market biff Down Under.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.