Samsung Outsells iPhone, Breaks Shipping Records
mashable.com
mashable.com
Also, shipped vs. sold makes any time a company brags on how many phones they shipped very misleading. Many companies are famous for channel stuffing to get the PR boost and to "fake it til they make it".
In Samsung's case, the sell through rate is probably pretty high, but still nowhere near as accurate as when Apple says how many devices they sold (as Apple only has 5 days inventory at any given time, Samsung probably maintains months of inventory).
I find the fanboy oneupsmanship from both "sides" highly tedious. As if someone can't praise both Apple and Samsung.
Given how quickly the models iterate, I'd be surprised if this was the case.
Actually, given how much modern management likes JIT production and loathes tying up money in warehouse stock, I'd be very surprised if this was the case. The primary reason for sales pipeline reports is to figure out what you need to build for them.
I, for one, am happy with these trends.
They wanted to rule the world. This was never ever Apples philosophy. Not with the Mac, not with iOS. They don't aspire a 99% market share, they are even content with 10% and indeed are deliberately limiting themselves in their product range. They don't want and can't reach every demographic. It is also noteworthy that not many services/products of Apple are subsidized. It was classic Microsoft to use their Windows/Office money machine to enter different segments and outcompete others.
Doesn't sound like it when they constantly go suing the heck out of competitors - not for their money but for excluding them out of the marketplace. Microsoft at least allows competition to exist if they pay up reasonably.
Nonsense.
It's sad that we are seeing more of the frankly utterly pointless and puerile posts and articles here. I thought we were all above this pettyness. Alas it appears that I was wrong. Neither party come out of this with any dignity.
My wife liked my phone so much that she bought one a few days later.
Awesome phone. I don't think I have ever been as happy with a device.
I actually wish the device were even larger physically with even a higher resolution screen, but I am happy enough with it. I am 6'4" tall, and the Galaxy S III fits really well in my hand. I understand that someone with small hands might not like the phone as much.
1 - It's a fantastic phone. 2 - The Apple faithful already have their 4 and 4Ss. 3 - Ship-jumpers: Apple is pissing a lot of people off.
Same here. 1-2 years ago I released an iPhone app and the review process was quick and fairly simple.
Now, we are on day 8 of waiting for review. Even if we get reviewed today, if we get rejected we're back to another 8+ days of waiting.
The waiting for review time was 10 days which is longer than I was waiting a couple of months ago although it seems to be normal now.
As someone who has experience in having to get apps to run on almost all Android phones it is a very painful experience. Not only do you have the fragmentation between Android versions but there are OEM specific bugs you need to work around. Then comes the fun part of having to support the wide variety of phones.
Trust me you'll be quickly missing the stability and simplicity of iOS development.
The iPhone simulator does seem better than its Android counterpart (due to the lack of customization available). Also, how will iPhone apps appear on the iPhone 5 which is likely to have a bigger display? There is nothing in xcode to deal with fitting to multiple device resolutions.
Also, coding for iOS 5+ only makes it a lot easier to write correct code because of things like ARC and weak reference types.
My only problem with Xcode is crashing, but that seems to have mostly been fixed. There is a vim plugin you can use if you prefer those keybindings.
Would you mind giving some product names? Just curious to understand your perspective.
Here's a great graphic to illustrate this point (2nd chart) [1]
[1]: http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-...
Also, if people actually read the whole analysis attached to it, they would see how positive it is about Samsung, not just Apple. To quote:
The new market disruption is evidenced by the shift of fortunes to Apple and Samsung and away from every other device maker.
Additionally, Samsung is now recording record profits, mostly on the back of rapidly increasing sales of profitable phones.
Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its net profit swelled to 5.2 trillion won ($4.5 billion) in the April-June quarter, a 48 percent jump from a year earlier.
[snip]
In the second quarter, Samsung's mobile division, which makes smartphones, personal computers and network equipment, contributed 63 percent of Samsung's entire operating profit by generating 4.2 trillion won profit.[1]
It's true that Samsung's entire phone division doesn't have the high margins Apple does (I've heard ~25% for Samsung vs 35% for Apple), but Samsung sells a lot of low-margin phones, which bring in a lot of revenue even if the profit rate isn't as high.
[1] http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jUVFPSfGFp...
Android beat iOS is market share a long time ago. Over all I think Android phones out sell iPhones 2:1.
Android is probably the more numerous still but the gap is probably much closer than the sales suggest.
But this doesn't mean that good 2nd hand Android devices don't get passed on to family or friends. All the devices in my family whether iOS or Android get passed along. The Android handsets are perfectly fine.
Apple is enforcing application signatures on the Mac because it's the Right Thing To Do security-wise. Rather than get stuck in a monthly patch-churn cycle like Microsoft is, endlessly releasing Windows fixes for all the sieve-like security holes in every last system library in their OS, Apple is choosing a better, safer, saner way. Vet all the third-party code that runs on the system, or at least force a certificate trail back to abusive or unscrupulous developers.
If you want to run untrusted software on OS X, good for you. Turn off GateKeeper. But requiring developer signatures on native executable code as the default makes too much sense. Arguing otherwise, when there's an easy way for 'power users' to turn off the protection, is elevating the rights of the lazy developer to distribute their code however they like over the rights of non-technical users to enjoy an uncomprimised computer.
Not sure what to think about signed apps, I just reject the App Store model. Whether it will become the only way in future OS X versions only time will tell.
I just went through signing the app that my company makes (even though, as yet, we don't need to sign because of the way we distribute). It took me the better part of a week to figure it out (mostly because I did something silly in my script), but I now have several scripts that I can use to make sure our next product is signed out of the gate.
Long-time Apple supporters will tell you that Apple is (a) not requiring all apps be bought from the App store and (b) that they are making mistakes with the sandboxing entitlements that are available, causing apps to leave the App store. In my experience, die-hard anti-Apple folks (like you seem to be) prefer to distort and ignore.
Apps leaving the App store - we'll see how that will play out. Who still develops apps for "classcial" computers anyway?
And by default, you can simply hold down a shortcut key to open an application and install it anyway without a signature.
As for the shortcut keys, I can never remember them.
As for the shortcut keys, they're documented, so you don't have to remember them.
As far as who develops apps for "classical" computers…there's a lot of us out there, because they're not going away.
I don't see any indication it makes grand parent happy or unhappy... Typical fanboy reaction.
It's not just the bogus patent suits and insane restrictions on developers that make people dislike Apple. Developers don't like that shit, but are also in a way more inclined to pragmatically overlook it. Real users are often less forgiving.
Secondly, you seem to be ignorant of the Cydia App Store where there is a large number of paid apps for the more power users.
Can't be Samsung, HTC or Google since all three are under investigation for anti-competitive behaviour in abusing their FRAND obligations. And as we know common standards are what foster innovation. Can't be Microsoft since it has a long, questionable history.
Meego, Symbian ?
I love competition and can't wait to see what Apple comes up with next.
("Samsung" is about 2.5x the size of Apple)
2011 Samsung revenue: 247 bil 2011 Samsung net income: 18.3 bil
2011 Apple revenue: 108.2bil 2011 apple net income: 33.79bil
Apple is way more profitable. Samsung is a massive company (I don't think many people realize how massive it is). Very interesting to see a real corporate war between the two.
You said the 'article' was misleading.
Unfair would be to compare the number of macs sold vs. the number of android phones sold since those devices don't compete against each other on the same market.
Edit: My view may be too US based, but the 3GS costs nothing after carrier subsidy.
Edit: Response to the parents edit: Yes, your view is US-based. If I buy a phone and get a phone contract without subsidy, my contract is cheaper - up to 10 euros/month. I'd be surprised if that's much different in the US - you always pay for the subsidy in one way or another.
Or we could compare the end results of two different business strategies.
And you can quite convincingly argue that Apple may come to regret ignoring this segment, just as they did in the heyday of the PC.
Samsung sells Android phones from around £89.99 [1] (probably cheaper, that was just a quick search). Depending on how you define 'smartphone' this article could also be including even cheaper (non-android) models at around the £50 mark [2].
[1] http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-mini-s...
[2] http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-mobile-samsung-cht-335-met...
If we compare notebook sales between Apple and let's say Dell, do we only count the 1000+ models just because Apple does not sell their notebooks below 1000? We can argue if the 1100 MacBook is as "good" as the 600 Dell, but who cares?
If people buy smartphones for 190 which may be crappy by your/mine/our standard and are happy, so be it. Let's count them.
The example you give of Dell vs Apple is a perfect example. Nobody would make the Apple/Dell comparison because it would not be news that more Dell laptops are sold than Apple ones. Whereas this article is trying to make news out of Samsung vs iPhone, due to the fact Samsung has an 'iPhone-like-product'.
It is misleading. Not if you read every word, sit back, process, go all hacker-analytic on it... and consequently realise it's not really news. But if you read the article in the way it appears to have been editorialised, picture of S III, focus on the newer models... the fact the somewhat spurious comparison is even being drawn to begin with, you could be inclined to believe this article is saying 'S III et al are beating the iPhone'.
It's subtle sure, but it ultimately is not an accurate title for the article, and is very easy to misconstrue. A fairer title would be something like: "Samsung is selling handsets to a broader market spectrum than Apple, will this lead to greater profits in the long-run?" - boring title, granted.
What an absurd way to frame it...
Companies care about units sold (market share) and profit.
Samsung is winning on units sold, Apple on profit.
Nobody cares about one individual model "winning" over some other, you can't measure that anyway. How many people would have bought an iphone if there was no roughly equivalent $300 samsung available? How many wouldn't have bought a smartphone at all if there was no $300 samsung?
>> Nobody cares about one individual model "winning" over some other
The Internet begs to differ.
Perhaps Apple is simply overpriced, ever thought of that? Prices for electronics are always falling, there is no law of nature that demands high end phones have to cost 800$.
This is why Apple is so concerned about Samsung selling iPhone lookalikes, though. Samsung has the manufacturing and distribution prowess to do some damage, and Samsung has shown themselves to be a better "fast follower" than Microsoft ever was.
With a little help from Google, of course. Imagine if Samsung had to write their own mobile OS.
Profits are what matters, naturally, but I think market share is the writing on the wall here.
So it goes. Company innovates and offers a wonderful new product, makes ridiculous profit, is shamelessly/lovingly ripped off, loses edge, has to come up with the next big thing or die. The story of free enterprise since forever. This time isn't different.
I agree that market share is a leading indicator, and that Apple's biggest challenge is to run faster than everyone else, while keeping the imitators at bay and not outrunning consumers or the laws of physics.
But they've got some runway due to their efficiencies (and cash). It's not sexy, but it's how Tim Cook earned his job, and I don't think anyone at Apple is confused about any of the above. :)
But they're a great hardware company.
Actually many people in Germany seem to like it.
The pattern can be seen and you only have to add 2+2.
Revenues will get further down this quarter, leading up to the iPhone release and the holiday quarter will break all records again.
It will be interesting to see how Apple will stand next to Samsung after that quarter.
* If she leaves her job she can give the SIM back to the company and won't get anymore calls on that
* Separate billing. Company pays for official calls only
* Switch On/off one SIM or other when required
The other use is for bargain hunters. There are so many operators to choose from. The ones with wider coverage are expensive and the others are dirt cheap . So the cheaper one is usually used for making outgoing calls when the signal strength is good. The expensive ones are used for incoming calls (which is free in India. Here calling party pays) or even for outgoing calls when the other one has poor signal.
Carrying 2 phones is expensive/inconvenient . So most of the feature phones come with 2 SIM slots in India. Smartphones are now catching up
edit: Still, 50M is more than the 37M iPhones Apple sold in the iPhone 4S release quarter.
I find the attempts at derision of people gaining on Apple highly humorous.
Does anyone have any Android vs iOS vs WP7 stats for the last quarter?
Sure.
In millions[1]:
Samsung: 93.0
Nokia: 83.7
Apple: 26.0
Smartphone sales are more difficult to come by, but Gartner has platform stats for the latest quarter. I have to guess most of these from a chart republished in The Guardian[2]:
Android: 56%
iOS: ~25%
Symbian: ~12%
Blackberry: ~8%
WinPhone: ~2%
[1] http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/07/27/samsung-grabs-record...
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/16/android-sma...
If you want to bring up the patent lawsuits, I do not personally believe Apple is opposed to competition, they are just opposed to that competition 'stealing' what they feel (rightly or wrongly) that they have invented.
Apple cares about Samsung only to the extent they believe all or part of Samsung's success is built on infringing Apple patents.