In December Patently Apple posted a report titled "Samsung is going to Experience the 'Big Squeeze' in 2017 and their U.S. Market Share is Headed for a Crash." The report noted that Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi were coming to the U.S. in 2017 and with more quality Android smartphone options, Samsung was likely to experience a decline in U.S. smartphone market share. On Monday Samsung's Co-CEO Kwon Oh-hyun addressed employees and warned that Samsung would experience "lagging" growth in its key markets and pledged reforms to avoid a repeat of the "expensive" Note 7 smartphone recall debacle.

This week at a pre-CES event, Huawei Device USA revealed that its highly-acclaimed Huawei Mate 9 will be available in the United States starting January 6, 2017. Building on Huawei's renowned innovation, the beautifully-designed Mate 9 delivers an all-new Android experience, featuring fast computing performance for 18 months with the new Kirin 960 chipset and machine-learning algorithm, SuperCharge technology for safe and fast charging, and a stunning new photo experience. For more of the details on this smartphone see Huawei's full press release here.

Oppo is likely aiming to enter the market later this fall. The only one of the original three that won't be coming to the U.S. as first forecasted is Xiaomi who basically chickened out. Xiaomi's global VP, Hugo Barra was quick to dispell any hope for their Mi line of Xiaomi phones entering the U.S. this year.

Bara squirmed around the rumors by saying that "We don't have any specific-enough plans yet that we're comfortable talking about yet." Of course the bravado was at a fever pitch about Xiaomi coming to the U.S. when Xiaomi was hitting the top five smartphone makers chart in China. This year they were wiped off that chart by Oppo and Vivo (owned by BBK) and new challengers are on the way like OnePlus.

So their glorious dreams of entering the U.S. on a flying chariot of fire is now all but a lost opportunity. They're just one brand amongst many mid-tier players with nothing much that could distinguish them.  

Barra added that "We don't want to go anywhere near the half-hearted efforts to launch a brand in the US just to say we're in the US."

At the end of the day, Samsung was able to change the narrative about their disastrous Note7 today by pre-announcing that the conglomerate known as Samsung was going to announce a very strong quarter.

But let's not lose sight of the reality that their mobile division was a major loser this quarter and if it wasn't for an army of other products made under the Samsung brand, their stock would have gotten run over by Wall Street brokers running for the doors.

The reality of the day is that their Co-CEO said on Monday that they would experience "lagging" growth in its key markets – and that of course is a reference to the U.S., first and foremost, and it's due to new competition on the way that started this week with Huawei's announcement at a pre-CES event.

The big squeeze has begun and the anniversary iPhone is only going to give Samsung a bigger headache later this year. But as much as I'm not a fan of Samsung, they're a resilient mega beast and the Galaxy S8 is going to be jammed packed with goodies to delight their fans.

Samsung may even try to get under the skin of Apple fans by offering their new Galaxy S8 customers free wireless earbuds to mock Apple's very expensive AirPods. It's hard to believe that Samsung would go that far to sell their new smartphone, but that's what the rumor was this week. Desperate times push companies to take desperate measures and the big squeeze on Samsung has only begun.

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