Samsung is the only top-five cellphone handset manufacturer to lose sales in 2014, with Apple, Xiaomi, Lenovo and LG all increasing sales worldwide. As a result, the company will reportedly cut its phone production by as much as 30 percent in 2015, to lower the cost of inventory and make fewer smartphones that fail to sell on the market.

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The move comes after the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note were outclassed by competitors - the Galaxy S outclassed by the HTC One, Xiaomi Mi3, Moto X and LG G3 - the Galaxy Note 4 by the iPhone 6 Plus.

The knock on effect from both flagships not beating sales expectations, alongside less enthusiasm in the low-end for Samsung devices, has lead to a 11 percent decrease in sales in 2014.

Samsung has not been in this position in the mobile market before. The Galaxy range is flooded with random smartphones - like the Galaxy S5 Active, K Zoom, S5 Mini and Note Edge - all phones that lack a broad appeal and have one or two marketable features, which some customers may not find appealing.

Samsung has used its large manufacturing arm as an advantage in the past, capable of producing hundreds of millions of units without an issue, but this abundance of devices is starting to pile up.

The South Korean manufacturer is still the largest smartphone seller worldwide, with double the sales of Apple in the third quarter of 2014, but it also makes the most smartphones. Samsung reported the lowest growth in the smartphone market to date in 2014, worrying investors.

Apple - on the other hand - reported record profits with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, reportedly selling over 40 million units. Apple is on pace to selling 80 million units by the mid-point of 2015, according to several analysts.

If Samsung cannot keep up with Apple in the high-end and cannot fight off new low-end competitors in China and India, it has lost a large portion of its market in one swoop.

TagsGalaxy Note, Galaxy S