Samsung Note 7 sales to be hit in China after global recall: Report

Beijing, Sep 26 (IANS) In mainland China, 51.9 per cent people plan not to buy Samsung smartphones in light of the global recall of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones owing to exploding batteries, a media report said on Monday. 

"Samsung’s turmoil from its first large-scale withdrawal of a smartphone is largely predicted to benefit rivals Huawei Technologies, Oppo Electronics, Vivo, Xiaomi and Apple on the mainland," the South China Morning Post reported, citing analysts and Chinese retailers.

Samsung smartphone sales on the Chinese mainland "have been stagnant in the past few quarters" amid intense competition from major Chinese brands.

"The (Galaxy Note 7) global recall will further affect Samsung’s performance and reputation in China in the second half of this year," Tay Xiaohan, a senior market analyst at technology research firm IDC, was quoted as saying.

While nearly 37 per cent said they would consider buying an iPhone to replace their Samsung smartphone, 26.3 per cent said they would purchase a Huawei handset as replacement.

The report pointed out that Galaxy Note 7 sales were underwhelming even before the issue of exploding batteries was reported.

"The Note 7 recall has convinced many of my clients to purchase the iPhone 7. Others preferred Huawei’s P9 when choosing a domestic high-end model," a dealer was quoted as saying.

Tarun Pathak, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said the Note 7 recall will hurt Samsung’s share in the premium segment, which makes up nearly a quarter of total smartphone sales in mainland China.

"The models likely to benefit would be Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus, Huawei’s Mate series or Oppo’s R series," Pathak was quoted as saying.