Samsung has clawed back its crown from Apple as the world’s biggest smartphone seller by volume, but it still has a long way to go to reclaim its golden years.
While still on top of the industry, the Korea-based tech giant posted yet another profit decline on Wednesday, its fourth-consecutive quarter of declines. The $4.3 billion it made in the first quarter of 2015 is 39% lower than the same period in 2014.
Samsung has been hit by what Neil Mawston, executive director of Strategy Analytics, called a “pincer movement.” Competition on the high end of the market from Apple and the low end from Chinese upstarts like Huawei have pinched Samsung’s business.
“It’s taken several quarters for Samsung to react to [the competition] and to create products to slow down that attack,” Mawston said. “Samsung probably has another year or two of work to say they’ve recovered.”
To do this, Samsung is banking on its new high-end products — notably the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge — to compete with Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6+ and help get the company back on track.
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