China favors Huawei P8 over Samsung Galaxy S6

Samsung Electronics’ brand awareness in the all-important Chinese smartphone market fell to second place behind China’s Huawei in May, a recent report found Sunday.

According to the report by ZDC, a Chinese market research firm, Huawei topped the list for the first time this year with 15.9 percent awareness, followed by Samsung’s 15.2 percent and Apple’s 12.4 percent.

Samsung, which had been running ahead of its rivals during the January-April period, failed to continue the momentum despite last month’s release of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6.

In terms of product awareness, the Galaxy S6 ranked third, feeling the squeeze from Huawei’s more affordable P8 and the still hot-selling Apple iPhone 6, the report said.

In China, the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 were priced at the same 5,288 yuan ($850) as of April 31, while the P8 was at 3,588 yuan.

The Chinese debut of the Galaxy S6 and its Edge variant came after Samsung, once the market leader, was outpaced by Xiaomi, Huawei and Apple in the nation’s smartphone sales in the first quarter of this year.

The company pinned high hopes on the new phone in restoring its market share, beefing up marketing activities to lure customers especially from the iPhone 6 that debuted in September 2014.

Amid the strong sales of the iPhone 6, Huawei also pledged to take on the Korean rival by advancing the P8 launch to the same week of the Galaxy launch.

“Huawei elevated its brand awareness in May, launching six new models,” said the report. “The company is expected to continue the recent vigor in June.”

The ZDC report is one of the key indicators to gauge the marketability of new mobile devices in China.

By Lee Ji-yoon and Kim Yu-ah
(jylee@heraldcorp.com), (kimyuah@heraldcorp.com)