Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's top tech giant, saw its presence in the Southeast Asian smartphone market decline in the first quarter despite increased shipments, data showed Wednesday, as Chinese rivals took up more of the fast-growing region with budget models.
  

Samsung's smartphone sales in the region rose 28 percent on-year to 5.5 million units in the January-March period, but the company's market share moved down nearly 7 percentage points over the cited period to 23 percent, according to the data compiled by industry tracker IDC Corp.
  

U.S. rival Apple Inc. came next with a market share of 7.5 percent, trailed by Taiwan-based ASUS with 5 percent, the data showed.
  

China-based Oppo Electronics and Huawei, which each held less than 1 percent shares last year, took up 1.1 percent and 1 percent of the Southeast Asian smartphone market, respectively, in the first quarter.
  

"As expected, there has been a significant growth of smartphones since the availability of cheaper makes in the market, most of which came from China and local vendors," the researcher said.
  

"The outlook for 2015 is bright and will generate lots of excitement as established vendors defend their turf against a tidal wave of new and existing Chinese and local vendors." (Yonhap)