The recent death of Samsung’s fall flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone is expected to shake up the mix of shipments and market share for major smartphone brands. But who will benefit the most?
According to a new report from TrendForce, the absence of Samsung’s premier device will make space for other major brands like Apple, Huawei, Vivio and OPPO to snatch up demand that would have otherwise gone to the Note 7. In particular, TrendForce said a substantial portion of consumer demand will shift to the three major Chinese brands, including Huawei, Vivo and OPPO. Apple’s iPhone 7 is also expected to benefit from the shift.
Since rival brands are expected to increase their smartphone production to account for Samsung’s loss, TrendForce said the prices of key components are not expected to fall slack, and may actually increase as vendors fight for supply.
Memory prices are expected to rise even higher than expected, the report said.
“In the long run, the fallout from the Note 7 incident will have a significant impact on Samsung’s overall bottom line,” TrendForce wrote. “To stay in profit, the technology conglomerate may increase the prices of its memory and panel components, which have a dominant market share worldwide. As for Samsung SDI’s smartphone battery business, it is still too early to predict the possible changes that will be made after this crisis.”
TrendForce said Samsung’s estimated production volumes for 2016 are expected to dip from original expectations of 316 million units to 310 million units in the wake of the Note 7 incident. Apple volumes were correspondingly revised upwards from 205 million units to 208 million units in 2016, as were Huawei production volumes – which received a boost from an estimated 119 million units to 123 million units. Combined volume estimates for OPPO+BBK and Vivo were raised from 144 million units to 147 million units for 2016.