The mobile devices business at Samsung has seen better days. While it's still a worldwide market leader, according to the latest numbers at IDC, global market share fell about 10 percent in the third quarter compared with the year-earlier period.

Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus continue to grab customers. And lower-priced smartphones are also gaining ground.

An array of phones, no recent product redesigns and emerging market woes seem to be haunting the Korean tech giant's smartphone unit.

It's been more than two years that Samsung has not had a product redesign, while newer designs from Apple, Lenovo and China's Xiaomi are attracting consumers.

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Xiaomi is now among the top five smartphone makers in the world, shipping more than 17 million smartphones last quarter.

In the emerging markets, consumers have shown their interested in lower-priced models, with higher specs. Technology market consulting firm CounterPoint Research reports Samsung recorded no growth in the Indian smartphone sector, even though that market grew by 64 percent last quarter, according to tech website, Dazeinfo.com

A Samsung executive addressed the emerging markets in its latest earnings call saying the company will "increase the number of components shared across mid- to low-end models, so that we can further leverage economies of scale."