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Apple Overtakes Samsung to Become Largest Mobile Phone Vendor in U.S.

J

Joesmith13245

macrumors regular
Sep 15, 2012
180
21
kwfl said:
in the US only!
Click to expand...

This is the key detail. Samsung has a more enriched global strategy than Apple when it comes to mobile devices. The "one size fits all" strategy Apple promotes may temporarily work in the US, however, it does not hold up in Europe, AMEA, and Latin/South America.
 
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samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
M-O said:
this also includes all of samsung's bottom of the barrel crap phones.
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It also includes the iPhone 4s which you can get for $99 and also the 4 which you can get for free.

Why do people have to rationalize/marginalize these reports as if someone is forcing you to give up your phone and/or mocking your decision to own whatever device you own.
 
A

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
turtlez said:
I wonder if Samsung gets counted multiple times per person handing it back in for repairs. My brother's girlfriend's S3 is off to repair for the 3rd time since release. My dad's S2 is off to repair for the 1st time in 2 months. My brother's girlfriend's brother's S3 is off to repair for the 2nd time since release. My 3GS has been flawless since release. My Brothers iPhone 5 has been flawless since release. My mum's nokia 6300 has been flawless since release. ;)
Click to expand...

almost every apple product my wife and i have owned has needed repair

original ipod
my iphone 3gs
her iphone 4
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
NoNothing said:
Other sites (like Engadget in their standard Android love fashion) simply add the word "smart" in front of phone thinking this report is limited to only smartphones. Talk about being mis-leading.
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The number was 26% of sales in all of 2012. 26% of all smartphone sales would be, well, nice. 26% of _all_ phone sales, including $10 phones hidden away in a drawer for emergencies, that's impressive.

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blackhand1001 said:
In the US. If you go worldwide apple gets obliterated.
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Most valuable publicly traded company. Fourth largest quarterly profit of any company ever, and largest quarterly profit ever of any company that isn't in the oil sector. That's what I call "obliterated".
 
D

dolph0291

macrumors member
Feb 16, 2011
92
2
slesnick3 said:
Just pointing out that Apple took the lead for the last quarter most likely due to the timing of the release of the Iphone 5. Samsung was still significantly ahead for the entire year. The title of this article is a bit misleading and reads as though this is some sort of mega competition ala Super Bowl.
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Thank gawd you're here to clear that up for all of us who read only headlines and otherwise walk around stupid in the dark. What would be do without you? We would probably have been under the mistaken idea that Apple did something better than Samsung. And that would be clearly wrong!
 
B

bandrews

macrumors 6502a
Jul 18, 2008
887
2,204
turtlez said:
I wonder if Samsung gets counted multiple times per person handing it back in for repairs. My brother's girlfriend's S3 is off to repair for the 3rd time since release. My dad's S2 is off to repair for the 1st time in 2 months. My brother's girlfriend's brother's S3 is off to repair for the 2nd time since release. My 3GS has been flawless since release. My Brothers iPhone 5 has been flawless since release. My mum's nokia 6300 has been flawless since release. ;)
Click to expand...

My dog's pedicurist's neice met someone who had been in a phone shop at the same time as someone was telling a sales assistant that their mother's SGS3 was broken.

But srsly, just because Windows PCs (in my living memory) have always outsold Macs, didn't stop Apple making hefty profits.
The problem with Samsung is the company itself is fragmented - never mind Android. I recently had to buy a case for my Mum's friend's Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (true story) and navigating the website was like wading through a treacle maze in the dark.
On top of that, they just have far too many SKUs to be working to the same margins/profits as Apple and for most consumers, that is too much choice. Look at the smartphone page on their site (in the UK). 28 Android phones. Think of a word and chances are it has a Galaxy phone named after it (with a Plus/Mini variant).
When people talk ecosystem, things like the website and retail stores need to be considered too. Not one other smartphone manufacturer has the high street presence or easy to navigate website that Apple does.
I'm not for a minute claiming that Apple should just sit back and watch Samsung eat itself (because it really can't afford to lose momentum) but I don't think it's doomed just yet - well maybe with geeks, but then the iPhone was never really designed for geeks.
 
GenesisST

GenesisST

macrumors 68000
Jan 23, 2006
1,802
1,055
Where I live
tshrimp said:
Don't companies usually look at the entire year when saying "overtake" and not just one quarter? Don't get me wrong, I am glad, but the title is a little misleading. A newer phone (ip5) vs older phone (SG3)= newer phone with better sales.
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This is the same as radio market share: all stations everywhere are #1 in some category!
 
SPUY767

SPUY767

macrumors 68020
Jun 22, 2003
2,041
131
GA
slesnick3 said:
Just pointing out that Apple took the lead for the last quarter most likely due to the timing of the release of the Iphone 5. Samsung was still significantly ahead for the entire year. The title of this article is a bit misleading and reads as though this is some sort of mega competition ala Super Bowl.
Click to expand...

Samsung also makes a hundred phones, half of which are given away for free. I'd wager that most of the Samsung phones are sold to people who don't realize or don't care what brand of phone they're getting.

The thing about the iPhone is, you walk into a store and you ask for it. When I bought my 4, I had to threaten the salesperson after he twice informed me that I didn't really want an iPhone and would do better with some HTC. It's all the more remarkable that Apple does as well as it does given that carrier saleschimps are operating on orders to steer people away from the iPhone because carriers make less money on those handsets than one Android phones.

tldr: People who know what they want buy iPhones. People who don't know end up with Android.
 
C

cappadonna

macrumors regular
Jan 15, 2013
100
0
samcraig said:
It also includes the iPhone 4s which you can get for $99 and also the 4 which you can get for free.

Why do people have to rationalize/marginalize these reports as if someone is forcing you to give up your phone and/or mocking your decision to own whatever device you own.
Click to expand...

Werent you rationalizing atts statement when you called people to task for it?

But now you're wondering why people are rationalizing this? That's not a flip flop?
 
S

samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
Pure FUD. Oh I'm sure you believe it. But FUD nonetheless

SPUY767 said:
Samsung also makes a hundred phones, half of which are given away for free. I'd wager that most of the Samsung phones are sold to people who don't realize or don't care what brand of phone they're getting.

The thing about the iPhone is, you walk into a store and you ask for it. When I bought my 4, I had to threaten the salesperson after he twice informed me that I didn't really want an iPhone and would do better with some HTC. It's all the more remarkable that Apple does as well as it does given that carrier saleschimps are operating on orders to steer people away from the iPhone because carriers make less money on those handsets than one Android phones.

tldr: People who know what they want buy iPhones. People who don't know end up with Android.
Click to expand...


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cappadonna said:
Werent you rationalizing atts statement when you called people to task for it?

But now you're wondering why people are rationalizing this? That's not a flip flop?
Click to expand...

No. That's not flip flopping. Nor is it the flip flopping you're suggesting.

You wrote (in case you don't remember) "Remember when macrumors posted the article that att announced record iPhone sales? And how all the anti applers started saying that's not what att said! Knowing full well that logic and a little calculation would get you there(and of course Apple did have record sales at att) But guessing or interpreting what att meant wasn't allowed.

Now the same people are saying idcs guess is sound. Seems there's flip floppers on both sides although no one can produce a single flip flopper on the Apple side for some reason...

Now tell me - who is it you see as flip flopping. Who has said IDC is sound but ATT wasn't?

Not to mention - they aren't comparable things. ATT's press release didn't state X, Y and Z. It was interpreted by the media (here) that way. IDC flat out has made a report.

I sincerely ask - do you have a reading comprehension issue or logic issue here? Are you intentionally trying to create a strawman?
 
S

smoledman

macrumors 68000
Oct 17, 2011
1,943
364
Maybe Samsung should stop making really crappy phones and compete straight up on high end smartphones.
 
L

Lennholm

macrumors 65816
Sep 4, 2010
1,003
210
iScott428 said:
The Important figure here is the YOY growth for Apple and the lack of said growth for Samsung. It also should be mentioned that Apple only has 3 phones for sale, while Samsung has like ~10x that amount on the market.
Click to expand...

The important figure is always the one that is favorable to Apple...

SPUY767 said:
Samsung also makes a hundred phones, half of which are given away for free. I'd wager that most of the Samsung phones are sold to people who don't realize or don't care what brand of phone they're getting.

The thing about the iPhone is, you walk into a store and you ask for it. When I bought my 4, I had to threaten the salesperson after he twice informed me that I didn't really want an iPhone and would do better with some HTC. It's all the more remarkable that Apple does as well as it does given that carrier saleschimps are operating on orders to steer people away from the iPhone because carriers make less money on those handsets than one Android phones.

tldr: People who know what they want buy iPhones. People who don't know end up with Android.
Click to expand...

Well, a 3rd of Apple's phone MODELS are given away for free so...
The fact that Samsung has more phone MODELS doesn't necessarily mean new Samsung customers are spawned out of nowhere, you could just as well speculate that the customers are simply diluted over many more models, that the models are cannibalizing each other in which case the total sales are what's relevant.
Most of the people I know who bought a high end Samsung phone are technology interested people who very much care what phone they get while many of the people I see with an iPhone are soccer moms and the, supposedly, 'trendy' people who care most about being fashionable and spend all their evenings queuing for the most exclusive night clubs in the city.

To me it's just as likely that many of the people who buy iPhone simply got hooked on the iPhone hype and don't even care to look at the alternatives.

For the record, I don't even have a smart phone personally but use both iOS and Android devices regularly at work.
 
E

Exio

macrumors regular
May 14, 2012
229
1
SPUY767 said:
Samsung also makes a hundred phones, half of which are given away for free. I'd wager that most of the Samsung phones are sold to people who don't realize or don't care what brand of phone they're getting.

The thing about the iPhone is, you walk into a store and you ask for it. When I bought my 4, I had to threaten the salesperson after he twice informed me that I didn't really want an iPhone and would do better with some HTC. It's all the more remarkable that Apple does as well as it does given that carrier saleschimps are operating on orders to steer people away from the iPhone because carriers make less money on those handsets than one Android phones.

tldr: People who know what they want buy iPhones. People who don't know end up with Android.
Click to expand...

It costs a lot of money to set up assemblies and part sources for hundreds of different phones. Apple only needs to worry about a few, so they save a lot of money their. You also got your last statement wrong, people who have no idea what they want and those who don't know much about technology other than apple is a company buy iphones. Most people don't buy android because they DO know what they want.
 
J

JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
slesnick3 said:
Just pointing out that Apple took the lead for the last quarter most likely due to the timing of the release of the Iphone 5. Samsung was still significantly ahead for the entire year. The title of this article is a bit misleading and reads as though this is some sort of mega competition ala Super Bowl.
Click to expand...
Well, the Super Bowl wishes it could be as competitive as the cellphone market!
 
B

bandrews

macrumors 6502a
Jul 18, 2008
887
2,204
Lennholm said:
Most of the people I know who bought a high end Samsung phone are technology interested people who very much care what phone they get while many of the people I see with an iPhone are soccer moms and the, supposedly, 'trendy' people who care most about being fashionable and spend all their evenings queuing for the most exclusive night clubs in the city.

To me it's just as likely that many of the people who buy iPhone simply got hooked on the iPhone hype and don't even care to look at the alternatives.

For the record, I don't even have a smart phone personally but use both iOS and Android devices regularly at work.
Click to expand...

That's the thing - the iPhone was the phone that made smartphones accessible to "soccer moms" and "fashionistas". Geeks have been using them since the very first........ er, whatever the first smartphone was but they were always unusable by mere mortals. I slowly managed to talk most of my friends into getting iPhones - not because they are the world's most tech advanced phones but because ios has the best feature:usability ratio of any other os/hardware. My mother could barely compose an email a couple of years ago - now she's on the ipad ebay app listing about 5 of her excess Gucci handbags a week.
If you're the kind of person who wants to obsess over clock styles and icon sets, go for Android. If you want a phone that just concentrates on well considered design and a more coherent app experience, go ios. But then everyone knows that already.
 
jrswizzle

jrswizzle

macrumors 603
Aug 23, 2012
6,107
129
McKinney, TX
Sorry for interrupting the RIVETING and INTELLIGENT conversation here....

Just want to point out that this is the first time since 2008 that Samsung hasn't been on top as far as total phone sales go.

Do whatever you want to do with this information.
 
M-O

M-O

macrumors 6502a
Mar 15, 2011
502
0
samcraig said:
It also includes the iPhone 4s which you can get for $99 and also the 4 which you can get for free.

Why do people have to rationalize/marginalize these reports as if someone is forcing you to give up your phone and/or mocking your decision to own whatever device you own.
Click to expand...

the iPhone 4 is still $450. you can get a samsung android handset for under $100 (galaxy precedent is $80 off-contract).

cheap will always win market share.
 
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