Samsung's Mobile Business Is Half the Size of Apple's

While Samsung retained its lead in the smartphone market in 2018, the company has found itself in a difficult spot recently. With Chinese vendors grabbing market share in the lower-price segment and Apple remaining the preferred brand of many premium buyers, Samsung is fighting on two fronts, amid challenging market conditions that don’t make things any easier.

In 2018, sales of Samsung’s Mobile Communications business, which also includes tablets and wearable devices, declined by 7 percent to 96.65 trillion won ($86.9b), the lowest it has been since 2012. Apple’s iPhone business alone generated $157 billion in sales over the same period, and adding the iPad to the calculation, Apple’s mobile business is now twice as large as Samsung’s.