According to Yonhap News Agency, citing a report from the Wall Street Journal on November 21, Samsung Electronics’ global smartphone shipments in the third quarter fell by 8.4% compared to last year, while competitors Apple and Xiaomi increased their shipments. In addition, Samsung’s mobile phone market share also dropped from 21.4% in the same period last year to 19.7% in the third quarter of this year. The market share of Apple mobile phones increased from 17.2% to 17.7%, and the market share of Xiaomi mobile phones also increased from 13.4% to 13.7%.
Sumsung
In the first four weeks of last month, China’s smartphone shipments increased by 11% year-on-year, with HUAWEI’s shipments increasing by more than 90% and Xiaomi’s shipments increasing by 33%. HUAWEI’s smartphone sales have dropped sharply since the United States imposed sanctions on HUAWEI in 2019. Still, the recently launched smartphone “Mate60 pro” equipped with a Chinese-made 5G chip has been evaluated as a new breakthrough for HUAWEI. On the contrary, Apple’s sales in China have decreased, and the good performance of Chinese companies is the main reason for Apple’s dim prospects in the Chinese market. According to Bandar Research, Ant investors net sold Apple shares for the first time last week.
HUAWEI
On the other hand, the latest “2023 Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard” released by the European Commission shows that Samsung’s R&D investment in 2022 will be 18.435 billion euros, and its global ranking has dropped from sixth place in 2021. to seventh place. It is reported that Samsung gave up its sixth position to Germany’s Volkswagen (18.98 billion euros), and ahead of Volkswagen is HUAWEI, which has entered the top five in the world.
Some media said that Samsung Electronics was once the world’s largest research and development (R&D) company, but now it has slipped to seventh place. The number of Korean companies among the top 2,500 R&D companies worldwide has also declined. Samsung has held the top spot many times in the past, including in 2018. However, this time, American ICT companies such as Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple replaced its leading position, and its ranking even fell behind HUAWEI and Volkswagen.
Last year, the total R&D investment of the top 2,500 companies increased by 12.8% year-on-year, reaching 1.249 trillion euros, a record high. Investments in Samsung Electronics increased by 10.3%, below average. There are only four Korean companies in the top 100: SK hynix (59th), LG Electronics (72nd) and Hyundai Motor (91st). Back in 2013, there were 80 Korean companies in the top 2,500 club, but by 2022, this number dropped to 47. The European Commission stated: South Korea is a country where only a few companies make large R&D investments. Samsung Electronics accounts for 49.1% of the total annual R&D investment of Korean companies, and the top five companies account for 75.5% of the total R&D investment in South Korea.
Media report
Last year, the world’s top 10 and top 50 companies accounted for 17.7% and 39.1% of total global R&D investment, respectively.
