(Beijing) – The slower launch of new products has weakened Apple Inc. in its competition with Samsung Electronics Co. in China's booming smartphone market.

Last week, both companies released reports on their their financial performance in the quarter that ended on September 30. Apple saw its net profit decline 6.8 percent from the previous quarter, the third straight quarterly drop, while Samsung reported a higher-than-expected 26.4 percent quarter-on-quarter growth of profit.