Chinese competitor Huawei is using Samsung's trial as an opportunity to rise higher in the Android device industry. This year has been bad for the South Korean brand which has suffered from plummeting sales due to defective Galaxy Note 7 units. Meanwhile, shipments of Huawei devices to international markets have increased, boosting the company's profits.
Huawei reportedly has a 2.4 percent share of the international smartphone operating profit during the third quarter of the year. This is equivalent to nearly $200 million.
Neil Mawston, the executive director of Strategy Analytics, said that "Huawei also became the world's most profitable Android smartphone vendor for the first time." He added that it is possible that the company will "maintain steady profitability into the first half of 2017, because its smartphone shipments are growing and it is doing a good job of controlling operating costs."
However, experts believe that the Chinese brand's gain over the heated South Korean company may be short-lived. Samsung benefitted from its decision to manufacture in India but was adversely affected by the explosion and recalls of the Galaxy Note 7s smartphone line. This pushed the company to the ninth place in the ranking of smartphone manufacturers during the third quarter of 2016. Despite these struggles, the Samsung brand remains strong on the market making it easier for the company to bounce back with new flagship devices.
Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei, said that his company is targeting to be the second-biggest smartphone manufacturer following the American brand Apple. Samsung was the most profitable firm in the Android field, but Apple continues to reign over all smartphone manufacturers with its 91 percent operating profit market share.
Meanwhile, two other China-based firms, Oppo and Vivo are also doing well in the industry with a 2.2 percent gain each.