Samsung Electronics, once a major smartphone brand in both China and India, has seen its market shares and influence in the two countries fading away fast.

Samsung saw its share in China's smartphone market slide to 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2017 from a high of 20% five years ago, according to data compiled by Strategy Analytics.

The same data also showed that Samsung shipped 9.8 million smartphones in the China market in the fourth quarter of 2017, the first time that the Korean giant's quarterly shipments there dipped below the 10 million-unit mark.

Samsung's market share in China actually fell from 3.1% in the first quarter of 2017 to 2.7% and 2%, respectively, in the second and third quarters. For all of 2017, the vendor had a 2.1% share in China, which was about one-fifth of the level seen in 2013, according to other data.

Although Samsung launched its new flagship Galaxy S9 devices in China in March 2018, the high pricing of the new devices, such as a price tag of US$839 for Galaxy S9+, is likely to deter Chinese consumers, said market observers.

Samsung's share in China's smartphone market is expected to remain at 0.8% in the first quarter of 2018, Strategic Analytics estimates.

In the mid-range segment, Samsung has also been facing keen competition from China-based vendors including Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi Technology, all which have managed to roll out models with price/performance ratios higher than those from Samsung.

Samsung, which had been the top smartphone vendor in India for six years, was outperformed by Xiaomi and relegated to second place in the fourth quarter of 2017, with its share falling to 23.9% from 26.2% a quarter earlier.

While still serving as the largest smartphone maker globally, Samsung faces the prospects of further declines in the smartphone markets in China and India in the near future, commented the observers.