Samsung Electronics Co's move to stop the sales of fire-prone Galaxy Note 7s will harm its reputation, which will benefit other smartphone brands like Apple, Huawei and OPPO, experts said.
The comments came after Samsung announced that it had asked all carriers and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7s. It suggested that consumers with a Galaxy Note 7 or replacement device should power off and stop using the phones.
Samsung's China branch also announced late Tuesday a recall of 190,984 Galaxy Note 7s in the Chinese mainland.
Samsung's shares slumped 8.04 percent on Tuesday.
The tech giant's decision to stop sales of its flagship model will shake its place in the global market, especially in China and the US, Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of the Mobile China Alliance, told the Global Times on Tuesday. This will have a great impact in the Chinese market, where it will lose its distribution channels.
"Its distribution channels will sell phones of other brands like Huawei, Vivo and OPPO. What's worse, when Samsung rolls out the Galaxy S8 in 2017, it's unlikely that these dealers will be selling them anymore," he explained.
Samsung's market share in China decreased to 7.7 percent in 2015, down from 12.8 percent a year earlier, according to data from market research firm Counterpoint Technology Research.
Samsung's share in China has been shrinking in the past two years, amid the growth of Chinese local brands, Wang said, noting the tech giant's recent crisis will worsen its situation in China.
Samsung's resolution will benefit other high-level smartphone brands like Apple, Li Yi, a Shanghai-based independent IT expert, told the Global Times Tuesday.
"Samsung and Apple are the two most poplar smartphone makers in the US market. So Samsung's crisis will directly boost sales of Apple's phones," he explained.
Apple's shares gained 1.88 percent in pre-market trading at 8:30 pm Beijing time on Tuesday.
However, experts predicted that Samsung could win back market share in the long run.
"This event isn't a fatal crisis for Samsung, as it is a powerful corporation with diversified businesses involving property, insurance and other financial services," Li noted.
A Samsung saleswoman based in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei Province, told the Global Times on Tuesday that her store had stopped selling Galaxy Note 7s.
"But there hasn't been an obvious impact on Samsung's other (phone) series in our shop," she said.
