2013 Internet Trends Report: Mobile Growth Soars, Tablet Shipments Surpass PCs in Less Than 3 Years

[Renzatic]

No.

I just think comparing Apple and Samsung is like comparing sales of Porsche and Ford.

If Porsche had a market share matching Ford, that would be considered more significant even if Ford had a slightly larger share. But that comparison wouldn't say alot since they sell to entirely differnt markets.

Remember this. If you ever think about making a car to computer analogy...don't. They're not apt at all.

Apple hardware might sport a slightly better build quality than most of the competition, but they cost about the same, and use roughly the same parts. If this were the case with the car market, then a Porsche and Ford would both cost about $15,000, but the Porsches have better bumpers and look nicer.

 

[samcraig]

This is why Apple takes patent violations very seriously. Technological innovations and design and ease of use features stolen and put on a cheaper product makes a difference. China and other eastern Asian nations like Korea have a long history of stealing trade secretes rather than self innovation. The very history of the start up of Samsung and their corporate culture in the 1970’s was to study televisions of the day improve and add on top of the existing technology. This is how they came to be and many other Television companies who could not compete with the low prices died out. I see a lot of comments here the don’t take these facts in account when people discuss how apple is being frivolous. If you love Apple and want it to be around 20 years from now, hope they don’t do to cell phones, tablets and computers what they did to the TV markets.

Wow - and this has what to do with what in this thread? Or did you just want to rant?

 

[rubberbandhadle]

Wow - and this has what to do with what in this thread? Or did you just want to rant?

I'll give you a clue, it may or may not have something to do with Samsung sales surpassing Apple..

 

[PracticalMac]

The funny thing is how many people still think iPad is a "toy"

It is truly stunning how fast the adoption as occurred, though.

 

[mw360]

What's the huge drop in tablets shipments, late 2012 and/or early 2013. Last graph, the orange line plunges.

You see the same drop each year, its widely advertised as a slump in sales these days but you can actually see its a reset to the trend following the holiday season spike. The spikes seem to be getting bigger as tablets become a popular xmas gift.

 

[PracticalMac]

What's the huge drop in tablets shipments, late 2012 and/or early 2013. Last graph, the orange line plunges.

I see that too.
It is the Christmas sales spike, but the fall is quite surprising.

iPad Mini was back ordered for ~4 months, as well as iPad 3 and iPad 4.
Include 2 new Amazon Fires, the Nexus line.

Yeah, 2012 Christmas was an awesome year for tablets!
And all who where watching finally stepped up and picked one.

 

[maxosx]

It's starting to look like I'll be in a minority since 95% of my internet usage is done on my iMac.

No you won't, and you aren't.

Despite this _one_ report... in the overall scheme of things, tablets are being sold to people who never needed a computer in the first place, but bought one anyway, using 1/10th of it's capabilities. Now that tablets are available, many people who didn't buy computers, have a much cheaper alternative.

Some of us enthusiasts have bought a tablet just for the fun of it, knowing it would not replace our computers that we use for design, engineering, and all sorts of other computational tasks.

Other enthusiasts, usually coming from the iOS camp buy tablets because it's what they know, it's trendy, and they like being seen with them.

Oh sure they may have some uses in the vertical market sector, but killing off the desktop or even laptop sector isn't about to happen.

 

[TWSS37]

117 slide presentation?

 

[chrisbru]

People buy (typically) one phone. Not multiple. So they are choosing Samsung or Apple (for example). The fact they have more choice on one doesn't really seem relevant.

And that's not even my issue. Regardless - this study points out one company having 1.x amount of growth and another having 7x. In any world - 7x growth is impressive. Extremely impressive.

Are you suggesting Samsung's growth isn't impressive?

I think some people are suggesting its misleading. Comparing the Galaxy S line to the iPhone line would be much better. Because Samsung has "smartphones" that you can buy for $99 off-contract... Something my younger brother buys when he breaks his iPhone and can't afford one off-contract for example. These phones are also replaced much more rapidly and there isn't the resale market to factor in.

So, yes, Samsung's growth in overall sold phones, based on quantity alone, is impressive and dwarfing Apple's growth in quantity of overall phones sold. However, how that growth relates to their success is not exactly a 1:1 comparison.

 

[CausticPuppy]

What's the huge drop in tablets shipments, late 2012 and/or early 2013. Last graph, the orange line plunges.

Looks like 3 spikes followed by a lull... I would guess those are due to holiday purchasing trends.

 

[840quadra]

I think both companies are doing awesome, and continue to push forward advances in this market in ways that wouldn't be possible with one single player.

There are a lot of nicely built phones out on the market these days, because of the constant competition between these companies, and their competitors. Definite win for us consumers.

 

[Davvid]

coffee

perhaps J.K. Shin, Samsung's Mobile CEO, bought the 600k coffee for Tim Cook.

 

[currocj]

Tablet fad...

I just switched from my Retina iPad to my new 15" Retina Macbook Pro and I'm not looking back. Its like a huge technological sigh of relief. Yes, I just added three pounds. Yes I lost touchscreen capabilities. But the gain is so worth it. Its also a $1000 increase (got it used for $1500), but I can do so much more on my rMBP than my severly restricted iPad. I suspect tablets will always have their niche (browsing, gaming, reading), but laptops are for 'everything else'.

 

[LagunaSol]

None. My comment was about reporting. I couldn't really care less who is doing better or "kicking ones butt"

Riiiight.

There are a lot of nicely built phones out on the market these days, because of the constant competition between these companies, and their competitors. Definite win for us consumers.

Unfortunately, the "nicely built phones" (HTC One, Nokias) are irrelevant due to Samsung's dominance.

And Samsung dominance is not a "win for us consumers." Not when they control both ends of the market (supply and end-product). Samsung's domination is bad for everyone, particularly for the Android fans who love to sing about "choice." That choice is coming down to "Which size/color Samsung device would you like?"

 

[samcraig]

I think some people are suggesting its misleading. Comparing the Galaxy S line to the iPhone line would be much better. Because Samsung has "smartphones" that you can buy for $99 off-contract... Something my younger brother buys when he breaks his iPhone and can't afford one off-contract for example. These phones are also replaced much more rapidly and there isn't the resale market to factor in.

So, yes, Samsung's growth in overall sold phones, based on quantity alone, is impressive and dwarfing Apple's growth in quantity of overall phones sold. However, how that growth relates to their success is not exactly a 1:1 comparison.

I agree. But some of these people really just want to make sure Apple is on top - at any price.

 

[TMay]

What spin is there? Do you not agree that 7x growth is impressive?

Good for them.

Now let's see them sustain that 7x growth over the next 2 years.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Why shipments and not sales?

 

[PDXoPDX]

China and other eastern Asian nations like Korea have a long history of stealing trade secretes rather than self innovation.

Oh those Asians, so cunning and sly! Anything we can do they do cheaper and on a much bigger scale. Perhaps that's the advantage of having the majority of the world's population?

 

[GoodWatch]

Why shipments and not sales?

Here we go again. I was actually waiting for this remark (Because the majority of Samsung shipments are returned or stay on the shelves and thus cannot be counted as actual sales, is that what you are hinting at?).

 

[AppleScruff1]

Here we go again. I was actually waiting for this remark (Because the majority of Samsung shipments are returned or stay on the shelves and thus cannot be counted as actual sales, is that what you are hinting at?).

I just thought it should be sales being discussed, not shipments. I am not one of the many here who seem to think that Samsung just keeps making products and not selling them. That is why I wonder why they are talking tablet shipments instead of sales.

 

[Tech198]

Yes... we knew tablets are on the rise...... At least i did ...

I do not need a chart to tell me that..... And, I am not surprised either that there going at a rate of knots.

People like tablets,, Whats more to say.

 

[4TheLoveOfTech]

My question would be since the graph is through Q4 2012 why did Apple show a Year over Year loss in profits and Samsung showed a Year over Year profit.

Yes, Apple had huge profit but not as much as it did in the previous year.

I would venture to guess it's not going to look any better for Apple after results get released after the June 2013 end of Quarter sales for both companies.

The odd part is Android in itself isn't beating Apple in Market Share or Year over Year profit, Samsung is doing that by itself and the other Android sales are just that many more phones/tablets that is not a sale for Apple.

For those that are looking at the HTC One (as great of a phone as it is), I'd check HTC Financial troubles and their upgrade history before I'd make that decision. It isn't a pretty picture

 

[Gasu E.]

Samsung and iPhone sell to the same markets. You can get both Samsung and Apple phones for free (at least here in the US for example).

Apple isn't a luxury product. You can get them at Walmart. A comparison of Apple to Samsung relating to Porsche and Ford doesn't work as analogous.

Yours is a very US-centric view of the world. I believe we have seen share breakdowns for the US, and they are much closer.

Outside the US, none of the base assertions above are correct. The phones are not "free" (which is of course a misnomer). And in countries where consumers pay for the phones outright, Apple IS solely a luxury brand. Samsung has luxury offerings as well, but additionally competes at other price points.

 

[unlinked]

117 slide presentation?

Some of them are quite interesting. 73 is a graph of world gdp share over the last 2 centuries broken down by country/continent.

 

[toaster64]

C'mon MacRumors, stop with these analyst things. "Tablet growth is faster; therefore, it will surpass PC shipments very soon." Extrapolating like that never works accurately at all. Remember when Apple was going to hit $1000?