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

[nia820]

In the US. I would like to see some stats from Europe and Asia

[samcraig]

Originally Posted by M-O

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.

These #s include both subsidized and not, no?

Again - you can get previous iterations of the iphone for cheap/free.

If cheap always wins marketshare - then why is the iPad the top one there?

[craftytony]

Originally Posted by Wicked1

Non related by Samsung's new commercial mocking Apple about Copyrights

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/02/...owl/?iid=HP_LN

At the end of this commercial there should be a line of text reading...

Samsung = Butthurt

[Technarchy]

Originally Posted by Bantz

Whats worldwide like? Samsung pure domination?

With Samsung you'll never get real sales numbers. They can basically make up any number they want and get away with it. When they were forced by a judge to release their actual numbers they were pathetic.

American disclosure requirements are much harsher, so between Apple and the carrier quarterly numbers, we get a clearer picture on Apple's market position, which is clearly number 1 by a massive margin.

[samcraig]

Originally Posted by craftytony

At the end of this commercial there should be a line of text reading...

Samsung = Butthurt

Or Apple Fans = Butthurt over a witty ad.

Oh please. Step away and be objective for a second. it's a pretty amusing ad. In any arena where there has been so much litigation - it would be amusing.

If for the past year - two car companies, soft drinks, etc were at each other throats - you wouldn't be amused by this ad. really?

[Technarchy]

Originally Posted by samcraig

Or Apple Fans = Butthurt over a witty ad.

Oh please. Step away and be objective for a second. it's a pretty amusing ad. In any arena where there has been so much litigation - it would be amusing.

If for the past year - two car companies, soft drinks, etc were at each other throats - you wouldn't be amused by this ad. really?

For what it's worth, I don't think that ad has anything to do with Apple.

It's a funny ad that basically says, to me at least, tune in for our probably super expensive Super Bowl ad so we can get the highest return on investment possible.

[baller1308]

Even though Apple doesn't want to make a bigger phone, I think it's time they do. They said they didn't want to make a smaller iPad, but they did and now it's a hit. I think a lot of people are moving to Android mainly because of the larger screen options.

[Premium1]

they overtook them in q4 but are still way behind for the year.....

[Beenblacklisted]

hahaaha.... what the author of this article doesnt realize is that the cheapest worldwide price for an iphone is in the usa. Wana try and figure out how many of those 17 million phones were exported? hint hint atleast 10%...lazy writing, sloppy research. deleware and new Hampshire carry the largest inventory numbers of iphone, 75-80% of phones purchased in these states have there phones shipped worldwide.

[tbrinkma]

Originally Posted by lazard

you're disregarding the fact that if a person wants iOS, they only have one choice, Apple. If a person wants Android, they have the option of Samsung, Motorola, HTC, Sony, LG, etc. So for you to argue about the discrepancy of models offered by each company is a moot point.

Look at the numbers. HTC, sitting in third place, could better than *triple* their sales without improving their position on that list. If the competition were for Apple, Samsung, and everyone else *combined*, Samsung would very nearly keep 2nd place.

It looks like if people want a phone, they go to Apple, or Samsung, and only if neither of those companies offers something they want, do they bother looking at any other company's products.

This is a very lop-sided market. There are two market leaders, and the rest of the pack are so far behind that they may as well not be in the race.

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Originally Posted by blackhand1001

In the US. If you go worldwide apple gets obliterated.

On the other hand, if you look at the combined parts of the world where Apple actually sells the iPhone, they're doing pretty well.

[rdlink]

Originally Posted by slesnick3

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.

You are correct that the story title is misleading, and that Samsung outsold Apple for the entire year. However, what's interesting here is that Apple went from 29m units in 2011 to 43m units in 2012, a gain of about 14m units. While Samsung gained no real ground between 2011 and 2012, in spite of the "iPhone killer" S3.

[theOtherGeoff]

Originally Posted by cdmoore74

This is like scoring more points in the 4th quarter of the Super bowl but still losing the game.

Note 2 owner

This game never ends. It's perennially entering 'the last quarter'.

While momentum doesn't mean much (I mean Samsung had 52% in the quarter prior), it does basically say (estimate) that iPhone/iOS is still attractive to consumers.

It also says that the iPhone 4 is now the 'baseline' for 'feature phones' (if you can 'buy' a 'free' phone (on a 2 year contract), more people choose an iPhone 4 over other modalities. Maybe cachet, maybe functional need, maybe construction quality... dunno.

But how it plays in Beijing is now the key measure. Madison Avenue and Rodeo drive are not the money makers they were in the past.

AAPL stock owner.

[BRLawyer]

Originally Posted by zin

Doomed. Doomed, I say!

Should I make a comment? No, better not.

[delnerdo]

Clearly Samsung sells the largest mobile phones.
Doesn't that make them the largest mobile phone vendor?

[wkadamsjr]

Originally Posted by SPUY767

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.

Two things:

1. People who want an iPhone are usually smart enough to buy from Apple directly or online, where they don't have to deal with the salesman.

2. The last line is false. There are some people who actually prefer Android over iOS . If you fail to realize that, you are living in the dark.

[mrhick01]

Originally Posted by crackbookpro

The "cheaper iPhone" has to be in production... Android is starting to saturate certain new international markets because of cheap adoption through a subsidizing culture created by Google & Samsung.

Android is stronger than it ever was, and Apple knows this, and Apple knows they have to release a cheap iPhone. I personally believe they should go back to the smaller screen, and make a phone out of polycarbonate backing.

The iPhone 5 is still undoubtedly the best phone ever made.

Next Fall - The iPhone 5s(along with the 5) should be able to make purchases with NFC & Bio-Metric scanning as the next big update, and while they do that... they should debut a smaller cheaper iPhone that can not do that particular feature. This would hurt the initial stock, but promote stronger investments in an array of avenues.

I disagree. (Although I am sure that the Authentec purchase made will be seen from Apple in the next 12 months)

I think Mr. Cook and Mr. Ive may want to (re?)watch the "Steve Jobs - The Lost Interview".

When you start to chase feature-sets that consumers are clamoring for, that is when you start to lose. The process is starting to dominate the content.

What I want to see is beautiful stuff, crafted well and planned for the purposes for people to be inspired and create new things of their own.

[mrsir2009]

When you think about it, this doesn’t really mean much.... Samsung was ahead at the beginning of the year, because the had the GS3 and then the Note2, while Apple only had their ageing iPhone4S. Then Apple overtook in the last quarter becsuse they brought out the iPhone5. It’s just a game of leapfrog, really.

[Lennholm]

Originally Posted by bandrews

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.

Which is not what the poster I was replying to was saying, that's why I replied to him/her.

I disagree with you on the reason smart phones became mainstream after the iPhone. It wasn't because they were unusable before, they were perfectly usable, they just weren't appealing for non-business use. They were expensive and had very limited media consumption features. Smart phones back then were simply only intended for business use and entertainment features were put in feature phones, such as the SonyEricsson Walkman phones.
The iPhone was really the first phone to seriously combine the business features with entertainment features and imo that's the main reason why smart phones took off then, rather than some 'unusability' of previous smart phones.

[mrsir2009]

Originally Posted by blackhand1001

In the US. If you go worldwide apple gets obliterated.

Apple also doesn’t sell the iPhone in much of the world.

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Originally Posted by smoledman

Maybe Samsung should stop making really crappy phones and compete straight up on high end smartphones.

They do. Unlike Apple, Samsung plays both the high end AND the low end market. From the Samsung Galaxy Y to the Note 2

[brdeveloper]

Originally Posted by mrsir2009

Apple also doesn’t sell the iPhone in much of the world.

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They do. Unlike Apple, Samsung plays both the high end AND the low end market. From the Samsung Galaxy Y to the Note 2

Yep. If Apple sold 3GS for about $100 unlocked these days, certainly it would be a Galaxy Y killer.

[mrsir2009]

Originally Posted by brdeveloper

Yep. If Apple sold 3GS for about $100 unlocked these days, certainly it would be a Galaxy Y killer.

It would, actually... However it would also be an iPod Touch killer.

[teejaysyke]

I can't wait for the Galaxy S 4, the iPhone is going to have serious competition and if they don't get it right, the S 4 will be my next phone.

[M-O]

Originally Posted by samcraig

These #s include both subsidized and not, no?

Again - you can get previous iterations of the iphone for cheap/free.

If cheap always wins marketshare - then why is the iPad the top one there?

yes. it includes all smartphones. the cheapest iPhone you can get is $450. the cheapest Android handset you can get is $80. Cheap always wins the masses.

as for iPad, it's market share is falling fast. it's in the lead because the market is young. for the first year it had no competition. the second year it had competition but they were equal or greater in price. now we are at year three and the cheap tablets are coming out in full force and we see them starting to take over.

but none of it matters. Apple doesn't care about market share. They care about keeping the customer happy and spending like crazy.

[akbarali.ch]

firstly the comparison of apple with other company is itself wrong. Apple makes one phone that costs a lot. By comparison here in India,
iPhone 4 costs 34000 ($630),
iphone 4S costs 41000 ($750) and
iphone 5 costs 45000 ($830)

these are pretty high figure for a phone, atleast here in India.

If you see Samsung's phone,

s3 cost 29000 ($540) a current generation Samsung device, way cheaper than Apple's 2 year old Device. Apple is definitely not trying to compete, maybe with the cheaper iPhone they will in future, then we'll see a proper competition. If you look a little more closely then Samsung sells a touch screen smartphone costing Rs.6000 ($112), cheap in price and cheap in quality and still lot of people buy it, a lot of people. Thats galaxy y i'm talking about.

Also, no doubt that Samsung makes some good hardware, but they have a different strategy than Apple. Their target is to sell to as many people as possible. Apple just want only people who can afford their high standards.

As of now comparing Samsung and Apple is like comparing a Wallpaper and Painting.

[M-O]

Originally Posted by teejaysyke

I can't wait for the Galaxy S 4, the iPhone is going to have serious competition and if they don't get it right, the S 4 will be my next phone.

let me guess. more cores, more speed, more megapixels, and more screen. how innovative.