News

Samsung reclaims spot as world's biggest smartphone manufacturer

Galaxy Note 7 troubles are behind it

Samsung reclaims spot as world's biggest smartphone manufacturer

Samsung has reclaimed its spot as the top mobile manufacturer globally after a troubled 2016 following the disastrous launch of its Galaxy Note 7.

Market researcher TrendForce found that Samsung had 26.1% of the global production market share for the first three months of 2017. This is up from 18.5% in the last three months of 2016.

Apple came in second place, securing just 16.9% of the global market share. China's Huawei placed third with 11.4%.

Production is down

That said, global smartphone production fell 23% quarter-on-quarter from around 400 million units to 307 million units.

TrendForce noted that this was largely due to China-based manufacturers reducing their output for the season.

Samsung had a rough 2016 following reports of its Galaxy Note 7 devices catching fire through regular use. It eventually blamed the issues on an untested battery that was too big for the casing.

As of January 2017, 96% of all the devices had been recalled. These devices are now to be refurbished and offered as replacement phones, or recycled and stripped for parts.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.