Analysts expect Samsung’s smartphone sales to stall next year

Sales of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy Note 8 have been pretty successful for the South Korean company, but analysts believe the company will see the slowest growth among the top five smartphone manufacturers next year. Strategy Analytics is predicting that Samsung’s market share will dip below 20% next year, with expected smartphone shipments hovering around 315 million.

The firm cites its reasoning behind the predicted drop is fierce competition from Apple in the premium smartphone space, while Samsung faces tough competition on the budget front from Chinese manufacturers. Analysts believe that Samsung’s annual smartphone shipments for its Galaxy S series will see its first decline since introduction in 2010.

Apple, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Huawei are all expected to maintain their market share and see growth, so it will be interesting to see how well the Galaxy S9 stacks up against these early suggestions for Samsung’s next generation of devices. We got our first peek at leaked renders of the Galaxy S9 today that appear to showcase a better fingerprint sensor location, so it’s definitely a step in the right direction.