A Smartphone Market Where Apple Inc. (AAPL) is Struggling to Win

While Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and its iPhone continue to do big things in some parts of the world, it is not immune to failure (and this could be more common in the future). Despite the fact that the iPhone performs well in most parts of the world, in terms of sales and profit, there are other companies that are doing just as well if not better.

We all know that Samsung and Apple are going head to head with one another in the smartphone market. Every day it is something different, with these two companies trading barbs and hoping to get a leg up on the competition.

Digitimes recently reported some interesting stats out of Taiwan: HTC maintains top smartphone vendor ranking in June, but market share falls

As the title implies, HTC is top dog in the Taiwan smartphone market. This is not a huge blow to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s business, but it is something the competition has to be excited about.

Here is more from the article:

“HTC continued to maintain its top smartphone vendor ranking in the Taiwan market with a 35.4% share in terms of sales value in June, even though its market share was down 1.5pp from 36.9% in the previous month, according to data compiled by local retail channels.”

As you can see, HTC is hanging onto quite a bit of market share in this country. While this company sits at the top, others, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), are hoping to gain momentum in the months to come.

Samsung is holding down second place with 27.7 percent market share, followed by Sony at 14.8 percent and Apple at 7.8 percent.

Cupertino has a way to go if it has plans on chasing down HTC. Before it can reach the top, the iPhone maker will first have to move past Sony and Samsung.

Here is more from the piece, talking about the top selling models during the past month:

“The top-selling models in the month were the new HTC One (32GB version), Samsung Galaxy Note II (16GB), Samsung Galaxy S4 (16GB), new HTC One (16GB) and the HTC Butterfly.”

The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone is nowhere to be found.

The Taiwan smartphone market is not a big one, however, it is emerging with strong growth. For this reason, we can expect competition to heat up in the years to come.