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Apple Overtakes Samsung to Become Largest Mobile Phone Vendor in U.S.
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It'll always fluctuate between Sammy and Apple. One takes the crown this month, the other will take the crown in next few months. Nothing special.
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syd430
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it's only a misleading rumor on this site. Other sites have the title as Apple takes the quarter, but Samsung takes the year.
Analysts and analytics. Most of their "work" is based on estimates and are pretty meaningless. Fodder for rumor sites who have nothing better to print.
Not as bad as the story on tablet market share. How the hell can you measure market share when companies like Amazon do not release sales figures for their devices?
Not as bad as the story on tablet market share. How the hell can you measure market share when companies like Amazon do not release sales figures for their devices?
Only to a certain extent. Android pretty much = Samsung when it comes to phones. The tablet market is a little different, but again look who is #2. The key is that Samsung is the only Android manufacturer who's been able to successfully compete with Apple at the high end (with the Galaxy line), while dominating the low end (the way Nokia used to), which Apple doesn't compete in at all.
I am not disregarding that fact, it was just not at all relevant to the article or my post. But looking at what you are referring to for every phone Apple sold in the US in 2012 and the 4th quarter the competition sold about 2. Look at YOY growth for 2012 and you can see Other's and LG have significantly decreased in sales, while Apple has captured those, not Samsung.
So to your comment, yes even though people have a pig's slop of choices for Android vendors, more are choosing only one
Is that seriously 26% of all phones, not 26% of all smartphones? So the cheap little pay-as-you-go phone that is in the glove compartment of my car for emergencies, turned off all the time, counts the same as an iPhone?
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syd430
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If you don't even have a clue on how these firms arrive at their estimates, how can you criticise the validity of their methods?
No, Apple still can appeal to the Supreme Court.
But looking at the odds, perhaps the final word is correct
If you look at the numbers, it's not even close. Sure Sammy is catching up, but the gap is still very wide. Apple sold 48 million iPhones last quarter. Sammy sold about 60 million smartphones in the same period.
Apple chooses to produce only high-end phones, with older models filling in the low end. Samsung produces several high end models plus they also have older models serving the low end. They also produce low end models as new, too.
Liking at just the high end models, lets assume that 80% of Apple's number are iphone5. That gives you 38 million high end iPhones for the quarter. In comparison, Samsung was estimated to have sold only 22 million Galaxy S3 and Note 2 phones.
So in the segment that Apple is competing in, they're still way out in front.
Samsung is doing well, but there strategy is different than Apple's. We'll get a truer comparison between the two if/when Apple chooses to go after the low end market.
Also don't disregard that if a person knows enough about phones to want Android, then they aren't even considering most of Samsung's, Motorola's, HTC's, Sony's, LG's, etc. lineups. They're choosing among one, maybe two of each company's products. Discrepancy of models is certainly relevent. You aren't buying the cheapo Android phone running Froyo or Gingerbread if you specifically want Android.
Since I've owned AAPL for over 11 years now, I do plenty of research. I don't care what their methods are, they are nothing more than educated guesses. The manufacturers don't break down sales by country, some don't release sales figures, others only shipped devices (shipped does not equal sold), carriers don't release enough data points to do anything other than guess. Usage statistics show Apple devices are used way more than Android devices yet Android devices have a higher market share. The fact is, this story and others like it are nothing more than educated guesses.
Apple would trounce Samsung if it had a cheap-o phone for the cheap-o market. The only reason I have a Samsung is because it is cheap ($29) and I already have an iPT.
You don't seem to understand business very well. Without profits and marketshare, you won't have great design and polished innovation. A company without marketshare and profits is a dead company.
Is there any research done that 4Q is the biggest for cell phones specifically? Retail - perhaps - but I would imagine cell phone purchases are more cyclical based on new phones and/or people's contracts - not so much time of year.
