Apple and Samsung Combined for Over One-Third of Smartphone Sales in Second Quarter

[TallManNY]

There are more players, they just suck. There are Windows Phones and there were/are Blackberry phones. If these companies can't produce a selling product to compete with Android and iOS that's their own fault.

If these other players can't make money, then they are going to drop out of the high end phone market. Blackberry already has as they haven't produced a phone as powerful as their Z30 since and that phone came out nearly two years ago. If the others start targeting the $200 market only to avoid competition with the iPhone there will be less choice for folks like us who are into tech and good devices.

 

[TallManNY]

I would love Sony Xperia to succeed. I have a Z3 Compact and it's everything that Samsung wasn't. Perfect size, incredible battery, great camera, music actually plays, fab screen, etc. The only reason I didn't go back to iPhone was the calendar widget constantly present on the screen, I used an iPhone for a few weeks and found I keep on missing appointments because I forget to click on Calendar. If one day Apple get proper on-screen widgets rather than just Notification Centre I might go back to an iPhone. I don't know why Xperia isn't more successful, it really should be.

Apple does have proper on screen widget, it is on the watch.

 

[PlainviewX]

This race needs a legit third horse.

 

[x86isslow]

I think Apple hugely benefited from the fact when the iPhone 6 and 6+ came out, it satiated a HUGE, pent-up demand for a larger-screen iPhone (why do you think Apple sold 74 million iPhone 6 models in the October to December 20014 quarter?). It'll be interesting to see well Apple does with the iPhone 6s and 6s+ models when they arrive in late September 2015 (as usual).

They have also created pent up demand for a modern small phone. If they introduce a 4" 6c with the specs of the new iPod touch, they can probably get a lot more sales.

 

[navaira]

I think the third horse will be either Xiaomi or Huawei. I know quite a lot of Huawei owners and they all seem pretty happy.

 

[LordVic]

I think the third horse will be either Xiaomi or Huawei. I know quite a lot of Huawei owners and they all seem pretty happy.

I'm really liking what I see out of Huawei.

Considering trading in my S6 for the P8. Will depend if Cyanogen ever gets a port.

Where I feel like Xiaomi is trying to hard to be a "me too" company, with designs that mimick mostly, Huawei seems to be actually wanting to try something new and different. The P8 looks absolutely stunning.

 

[navaira]

I think I'm going to go for Xperia Z4/Z5 Compact in 2016, but that kinda depends on whether Sony is still making smartphones by then... If not, and Huawei have a water/dustproof model (I'm a blacksmith and dustproof is absolutely essential, I ruined my iPhone 4 by using it to take pictures at work) available, they'll have my money too.

 

[kdarling]

Apple said (the CFO did) it sold more than the Ipad after 9 weeks, these Ipad numbers are ON THE RECORD, so that's at least 3.1M in the first 9 weeks. CFO and CEO at earning calls don't dabble in opinions, they're not allowed too.

What Cook actually said was that the Watch's SELL THROUGH was higher than the iPad's.

If he meant percentage wise, then of course the Watch did extra well, as it had 100% sell through.

(That's because it was only available online or in Apple stores, and Apple store inventory doesn't count against sell through like regular retailer inventory).

If he meant quantity wise, I think the iPad sell through was about 2.7 million.

The numbers reported were Apple = 92%, Samsung = 15%. If we assume that nobody else makes money, and if you want to keep profits and losses separate, that would make Apple = 86% and Samsung = 14%. (If anyone else makes profits, that would make the losses of the others even bigger).

I wasn't clear. I meant I had only done some quick research on the real numbers.

I ran across an article by Apple supporter, Elmer deWitt, which noted that it only included the top 8 profit makers, and that there were hundreds of smaller companies doing just fine.

Anyway, the report was using a total smartphone profit of $16.6 billion, of which they estimated Apple to have $15.2 billion from the iPhone, or 92%. But if you remove the losses, and include all the profits by the tiny "others", I think Apple comes down to 75% or less. Which of course is still incredible.

I am interested, why would any one pickup a brand other than Samsung for Android phones, aren't they all more or less the same?

I started as an HTC fan, then found out Samsungs were super lightweight, and now I switched to Moto X.

They have also created pent up demand for a modern small phone. If they introduce a 4" 6c with the specs of the new iPod touch, they can probably get a lot more sales.

Sometimes I think that Samsung is missing a bet. Apple stole a lot of their sales by going big, so Samsung should flip the favor and bring out a 4" flagship device

Where I feel like Xiaomi is trying to hard to be a "me too" company, with designs that mimick mostly, Huawei seems to be actually wanting to try something new and different. The P8 looks absolutely stunning.

The Huawei Watch looks like a winner, too.

 

[WardC]

<comment deleted>

 

[Palladium SG]

This is the most telling statistic of Apple dominance.

With phones that only have *1GB* RAM, no less.

"Failing" is a very strange term to describe the market leader. And "not being able to compete" is a remarkably strange claim for the company with the leading technical capabilities and supplier of Apple.

The Samsung S6 Edge is an amazing product. Apple has a huge mountain to climb to match just it's camera. The main issue with both Samsung and Apple, and maybe the issue Apple has always had since the introduced the iPhone, is that the smartphone market is aggressively commoditized so the value of a given innovation only lasts a year or two.

Another day, another specs junkie that never gets it.

 

[MacBH928]

They are more or less the same in that they all run some version of Android. But there is lots of choice among the different brands.

There were over 280 million Android phones shipped last quarter... but only 73 million of them were made by Samsung.

Clearly more people are choosing non-Samsung Android phones.

Interesting... then what makes 73m specifically choose Samsung over all others?

I own a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact. It's waterproof, dustproof, small, has a microSD slot and a battery that lasts 36-72 hours on single charge depending on how much you use it. Owning Galaxy S III dragged me through pits of hell and I am not giving Samsung another chance no matter how edgy (I'm so funny) they get, not to mention S6 is not waterproof, not dustproof, not small and has no microSD slot, but on the plus side it's more expensive.

This sounds like the ultimate phone... whats the catch?

 

[Michael Scrip]

Interesting... then what makes 73m specifically choose Samsung over all others?

TouchWiz... obviously

But seriously... Samsung is well-known. They make nice phones. They advertise a lot too. And I would imagine a company the size of Samsung sells smartphones in all 200 markets around the globe. Plus they offer smartphones in nearly every size imaginable.

There's no one specific thing.

It's kinda like choosing a laptop. Dell, HP or Lenovo... they are all Windows machines. If you have a certain amount of money to spend on a laptop... you can get a similar experience from any of those brands.

 

[s2mikey]

45% others!

Who are all these other smartphone makers? Are they all Chinese brands?

Probably. Dime a dozen Chinese JUNK, like most everything else from there. They are the kings of copying and fakes.

 

[LordVic]

The Huawei Watch looks like a winner, too.

That watch is the exact style of watch I would wear in a heartbeat.
I"m so eagerly waiting for pricing and launch. Now, just to hope Canada gets some Huawei love finally

 

[Keirasplace]

I think the third horse will be either Xiaomi or Huawei. I know quite a lot of Huawei owners and they all seem pretty happy.

Xiaomi won't be a big player in Europe, the Americas until it severely changes its IP stealing ways. Huawei could be because it is better in that regard.

 

[EddyBlowsCook]

Apple could do a lot better if they'd get there heads out of their arses. Drop the bloatware they pre-install on their phones and drop the price.

 

[Keirasplace]

Apple could do a lot better if they'd get there heads out of their arses. Drop the bloatware they pre-install on their phones and drop the price.

Huh! None of those other companies make money, even Samsung makes little money from their low end phone. So, how on earth would that be better for Apple? They make nearly 60B in profits per year with their "meager" sales... Are you asking that BMW start selling under 25K dollar cars?

 

[z31fanatic]

nevermind

 

[MacBH928]

It's kinda like choosing a laptop. Dell, HP or Lenovo... they are all Windows machines. If you have a certain amount of money to spend on a laptop... you can get a similar experience from any of those brands.

I wonder how those companies could differentiate themselves given that anything one company do, the other can do exactly the same. Its just a different label.

Apple could do a lot better if they'd get there heads out of their arses. Drop the bloatware they pre-install on their phones and drop the price.

I think Apple's problem currently is the software. The current iOS form is getting archaic for what the current iphone 6 does compared to the original (which was just an ipod that can make calls and browse the internet). They need something revolutionay like the Jump between OS 9 -> X.

 

[Keirasplace]

So because you didn't like one of their handsets you want the only firm who can challenge Apple to keep on their toes with innovation to go under. Mmm.. Interesting mind set..

How on earth are they keeping Apple on their toes? The S6 got beat by a 9 month old Iphone 6. Considering most of Samsungs phone are not competing with Apple at all, seems they're doing a terrible job of keeping Apple on their toes; just terrible.

The only real competitive thing that S6 did is finally putting a decent camera in a galaxy phone, which probably pushed Apple to slightly up the pixel count on the Iphone 6 camera (without losing low light performance). Still, the Iphone 6 camera has more hardware assist and post processing, which still makes it a better quick shooter, especially in low light and still better at producing good video.

 

[navaira]

My predictions (I'm a famous stock market analyst... joking) is that Samsung will continue to drop and Apple will continue going up. Huawei and Xiaomi are the real rivals now but they still need more brand recognition before they threaten those two. OnePlus would be a contender as well but first they have to manage to produce more than 82 phones per month.

S6 was a shot in the foot. Samsung removed all the good things about S5 (waterproof, microSD slot, removable battery) and added a better camera (most folks don't really care) and Edge which is a gimmick that remains exciting for a week or so. They have to resort to ridiculous "6 > 6" advertising because they don't have much more to show. "It does all the things that iPhone does, except it has Android and a better camera, please buy it" should be its tagline.

 

[deepen03]

Samsung hitting a lot of demand for the S6 edge. even more than the regular! Been loving mine since April.

So looks like they re-gained their market share at the top.. for now.

let's see how the 6S launch impacts Samsung along with their Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus launch on August 13th

 

[deepen03]

How on earth are they keeping Apple on their toes? The S6 got beat by a 9 month old Iphone 6. Considering most of Samsungs phone are not competing with Apple at all, seems they're doing a terrible job of keeping Apple on their toes; just terrible.

The only real competitive thing that S6 did is finally putting a decent camera in a galaxy phone, which probably pushed Apple to slightly up the pixel count on the Iphone 6 camera (without losing low light performance). Still, the Iphone 6 camera has more hardware assist and post processing, which still makes it a better quick shooter, especially in low light and still better at producing good video.

The S6 shoots in 4K and actually has the faster sensor. 0.2 second auto focus.

 

[deepen03]

Actually Samsung's innovation largely depends on Apple's innovation.

who was desperate and and rushed to make a 4.7 and 5.5 inch phone last year? I really want to know how iPhone sales would have looked like if the 6 had kept the 4.0 inch screen size, or if they only launched a 4.7 inch model. Lots of Android users flocked to the 6 for the larger size, but many also regretted losing their Android customization and better cameras from the likes of Samsung and Sony.

 

[pacalis]

Another day, another specs junkie that never gets it.

Leading edge specs is how Samsung competes. It's hasn't been as lucrative (and sticky) a strategy as apple has with all the network effects w/ Apple's design+ software integration, but it's a legit strategy Samsung is still very competitive because of it.

"It does all the things that iPhone does, except it has Android and a better camera, please buy it" should be its tagline.

Ha, true. It will be interesting to see if Apple catches up with the 6S.