Samsung smartphone sales to mark first year-on-year decline in 2015

Rumors have emerged the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 will be sporting an iPhone-like Force Touch technology called the ClearForce Touch.

The writing has been on the wall. Chances of it being a flagship phone is pretty slim. Lackluster sales for the quarter ended June 30 contributed to Samsung’s seventh straight drop in quarterly earnings.

Lenovo annual shipments are estimated at 70 million units as the vendor’s offerings for this year did not stand out among its competitors. Notably, the company is yet to ship 10 million units of its newly launched Galaxy Note5 phone.

TrendForce estimates that Samsung will ship about 323.5 million smartphones in 2015, one percentage point down compared to the year before.

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.

Even with the slippage, Samsung is clinging to the top spot among smartphone makers. In 2016, the annual shipment growth rate will drop further down to 7.7 percent, the firm predicted.

Samsung is still the market leader, but its market share in Q3 has fallen below the 25% mark. That’s a 16.3% increase quarter-over-quarter.

In July 2014, prior to the iPhone 6 debuting, Apple’s market share was sitting around its typical 4-5% market share range.

Huawei is no longer trying to compete for just budget-minded buyers. The launch of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus will have a direct impact on Samsung’s sales, with TrendForce’s analysts saying the new smartphones have “captivated consumers with its 3D Touch technology and rose gold exterior”. The Mate S is priced on the high side, TrendForce said, “indicating that Huawei has ambition to position itself as the premier global brand”. TrendForce’s latest projection shows that the global smartphone shipments are set grow by 9.3 percent annually in 2015.

With both ForceTouch, and soon ClearForce, arriving in the smartphone market, the technology is likely to become a common feature in handsets in the coming years.

She said that emerging markets including Southeast Asia and India are the major “battlegrounds” for the different vendors, as the developed markets reach saturation.

Do you think 3D Touch would be a good feature on the Android ecosystem? let us know by leaving a comment and tell us if you think Apple and Samsung are working together on this feature.