Despite recently launching flagship handsets, manufacturers Samsung and HTC have both seen sales of their smartphones recede.
As a result, the two firms reported discouraging first-quarter results, with Samsung recording its second year-on-year decline in operating profits and Taiwan’s HTC suffering its third loss in three quarters.
Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone and mobile phone maker, on Tuesday posted estimated first-quarter operating profits of 8.4 trillion won (US$7.96 billion), down 4.3% from a year earlier. That marks the second quarter of year-on-year decline, after a 6% drop in the fourth quarter. Sales were flat at 53trn won, up 0.24%.
HTC, meanwhile, recorded a first-quarter operating loss, its third in a row, of TW$2.05bn (US$62.3 million) on revenues which fell by 22% year-on-year of TW$33.12bn (US$1.1 billion).
The Taiwanese smartphone maker’s revenues were boosted in March by sales of its new HTC One M8 to carriers, which will begin selling it later this week in the US and other countries.
HTC expects revenues to pick up in the next quarter through sales of the M8 and its mid-range Desire 816, which is aimed at the Chinese market.
Samsung made more than 30% of all smartphones sold in the world last year, nearly twice the share of its rival Apple.
HTC had around 2% of the global market, but suffered in 2013 as Samsung’s heftier marketing spend and its own misfires in advertising failed to ignite interest in its phones. Data from the US suggests it has lost users while Samsung and Apple have made gains.
Analysts claim that the high-end smartphone market – which includes the HTC One M8 and Galaxy S5 – is a segment where growth is slowing as average prices fall, driven especially by competition in emerging markets such as China.
