While Apple is falling behind in the smartphone market against Samsung and other local rivals, local smartphone accessory makers are now forced to accomodate a wider array of product fits to ride on Samsung and other local rivals' dominance in the market.
Chief Executive Officer of protective case maker Magic Kingdom, Vincent Kwok, said that Samsung, Lenovo and other Chinese smartphone makers are driving up costs in basic materials and manufacturing. He further comments that while Apple only has a simple product line, other smartphone makers have a diverse range of devices, making design more complicated. He further said, "Expanding our product line has reduced the risk for us. To focus on Apple is too dangerous."
Magic Kingdom, who has invested in original and licensed designs, have been using new plastic moldings at CNY20,000 or USD3,300 per model. The company is looking to compete with cheaper smartphones that are currently sold at one-third of an iPhone cover costing CNY300. Other accessories makers also lamented that switching prices in ratio with low-cost smartphones wasn't easy.
Research and analysis firm Canalys published a second quarter report that Samsung and Lenovo led the market share and shipment figures. Samsung dominated at 17.6% with 15.5 million shipments, while Lenovo took a 12.3% market share with 10.8 shipments. Apple only took a 4.8% market share with 4.3 million shipments.
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