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Actually it is commonly regarded that sold and shipped are the same thing when talking about Apple.

It is the other companies that play with the numbers by talking about units shipped

Actually... the other companies rarely say anything themselves.

The numbers we get are from analysts: IDC, Gartner, Strategy Analytics, etc.

Well technically, they are probably not wrong. Apple probably sold every iPhones it made (at least within most margin of error). It would've been more fair to compare units sold, but companies other than Apple rarely reports such figure.

Then how accurate is this comparison because, most of the time, I find what those analysts say is rubbish.
 
I was in NY at the 5th Avenue store and one of them almost knocked me down as it flew by. They are selling like hot cakes. (but not nearly as tasty)

That's why I switched to the Samsung Galaxy G4S X150-Z R20 XTRA 7. It has the feature that makes it taste like hotcakes. Although admittedly it after a few months it starts to taste more like old sauerkraut.
 
What rubbish is this? Pretty sure that Apple's shipment numbers are higher. 74,5 millions iPhones are actual units sold, not units shipped to stores et al. Way to mix up numbers!

It's the same thing. When Apple says "sold", they mean "shipped to stores".

That's also what analysts usually mean when they cite either "shipments" or "sales".

Unless they explictly say so, they are not talking about "sold through to end user".

Unfortunately, Samsung ships many phones that sit in warehouses and on retailer's shelves. Apple can't keep iPhones in the stores and sells every single iPhone instantly.

Actually, on a quarterly basis that's only true about half the time. The other half, store inventories increase because retailers have bought more than they could sell that quarter.

And overall, the total of such channel inventory rises every year. Here's an older chart of Apple's increases:

channel_inventory_rise.png

The predicted future lines are pretty accurate, as (according to Apple) there are currently over 16 million iPhones sitting in store inventories, and around 5 million iPads.

At the end of the previous quarter they had 200,000 in stock which is much less than their target. Last year at the end of the quarter there were 1.1 million in stock.

You misread their statements. Those aren't totals, but relative shifts. I.e. it was 200K less, and 1.1 million more. See previous response.

Aren't we getting our history wrong here a bit? If Apple hadn't developed the iPhone, there would be no Galaxy phones. They only started getting popular when Samsung started copying the iPhone 3GS.

On the contrary, Samsung's sales didn't take off until they STOPPED looking so similar, and started to differentiate themselves.

And in the smartphone market, it's tied with the phone vendor that makes models for every segment of the market, with just a handful of models that are/were mostly top of the line when they originally came out.

Yep, it's amazing how Apple is able to keep their ASP up. Selling bigger phones at this moment in China really helped, but that dynamic could change:

It'll be interesting to see if their China momentum can continue in 2015, now that China's carriers are under government mandate to cut back on subsidies. Of course, Apple could offer their own loan programs.

Who thought a decade ago that Apple would be such a game changer in the mobile phone industry? Makes me think that Motorola ROKR (this came out in 2005) was just a clever ruse to let everyone get their guards down.

Heh. I think Jobs was so embarrassed at how the ROKR turned out, he felt he had to make up for it with something spectacular. Thus the iPhone :)
 
I'm kind of sad for HTC, they make some really nice phones.

Right there with you - best Android OEM in my opinion. Sleek hardware, efficient software....they used to rule Android and were really the ones to start the move to larger displays.

But alas, they didn't market themselves the way Samsung has and don't have the weight to throw around like Samsung has.
 
They did turn a profit last qtr, so that's some good news.

I am glad for that, but it's a shame they get so overlooked by Samsung because they make the closest thing to an iPhone for Android. I Loved the HTC One.
 
I am glad for that, but it's a shame they get so overlooked by Samsung because they make the closest thing to an iPhone for Android. I Loved the HTC One.

That's what gets me scratching my head about Android fans...they tend to ignore the best Android hardware. I've seen one HTC One out in the wild...only one. :confused:

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Imagine if it was Apple who reported a 2 million unit decrease in sales and a 27% decrease in quarterly profits.....

The interwebs would explode.


Ha...and the flood of Android fanboys posting on this site would crash the macrumors servers for weeks.
 
317.2 versus 192.7 for 2014.

Yeah, looks like Samsung is really on their way out to me...
LOL. What? The best smartphone right now is Note 4 hands down.
Soon they will release the S6 in two variants. And believe me (i am a tester) the "other" variant of the S6 is so sweet and probably has the best design of any smartphone ever. Just wait and see.

P.S. I'm no Samsung fanboy, actually i have an i6 right now.
 
When it comes to smartphone sales take anything that mentions Samsung with a grain of salt.

Samsung doesn't report sales numbers, therefore everyone is guessing.

Yup. And its odd that Samsung's mobile profits have fallen by huge margins but the estimated unit sales from IDC and Strategy Analytics have not similarly fallen. These analysts always seem to give Samsung the benefit of the doubt.
 
Imagine if it was Apple who reported a 2 million unit decrease in sales and a 27% decrease in quarterly profits.....

Interestingly, because of Apple's once-a-year-updates, their sales, revenue and profits do often fluctuate like that on a quarterly basis.

apple_quarterly_revenues11-15.jpg

However, year over year each quarter tends to increase.

Apple is like someone on a trampoline, bouncing a little bit higher each time, and really dependent on a giant yearly push.

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Samsung is a different dynamic, more of a smooth curve, with less radical changes per quarter.

samsung_quarterly_profits.jpg

They're like someone gliding to a height, then drifting downward. They need to figure out where the next updraft is.

Phones with folding displays could possibly fulfill that role.
 
Interestingly, because of Apple's once-a-year-updates, their sales, revenue and profits do often fluctuate like that on a quarterly basis.

View attachment 527192

However, year over year each quarter tends to increase.

Apple is like someone on a trampoline, bouncing a little bit higher each time, and really dependent on a giant yearly push.

-

Samsung is a different dynamic, more of a smooth curve, with less radical changes per quarter.

View attachment 527196

They're like someone gliding to a height, then drifting downward. They need to figure out where the next updraft is.

Phones with folding displays could possibly fulfill that role.

The reason they have less variation is simple, they release a huge number of phones models at various time of year. Also, Samsung phones rarely excite the masses, so you don't get that peek of interest.

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LOL. What? The best smartphone right now is Note 4 hands down.
Soon they will release the S6 in two variants. And believe me (i am a tester) the "other" variant of the S6 is so sweet and probably has the best design of any smartphone ever. Just wait and see.

P.S. I'm no Samsung fanboy, actually i have an i6 right now.

Right... Having actually used it I totally absolutely disagree. As for the S6, Samsung better hit it out of the park because they're going to have a very bad 2015 otherwise. Maybe even a loss.

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I know what you mean. I have a 5+ year old LG feature phone. It's solid, a bit kludgy but absolutely bulletproof. My plan is to replace it with an iPhone6 this year but it's been a solid device. About as charismatic as a Toyota Corolla but it's never missed a beat. But LG is also fading into the distance, run over by the Apple/Samsung juggernaut.

The LG G2 was LG's most successful phone to date. They're one of only 3 makers (other being Samsung and Apple) who turned a profit last year. But, its still pittance.
 
FYI: According to the numbers that I found, Apple's 2014 iPhone revenue (Q2 2014 to Q1 2015) is $120 billion, while Samsung 2014 phone revenue was $97 billion dollar (107 trillion Won). Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31033639

The Apple number is only iPhone, that is no iPads and no iPods, while Samsung revenue includes smartphones and dumb phones.

So even though this is the first quarter for a while where Apple smartphone unit sales matched Samsung smartphone sales, over the last 12 months iPhone revenue has been 23% higher than Samsung revenue from smart phones, and about 20 million non-smart phones.

Since Apple's sales have been vastly increasing over that period while Samsung has been crashing down, the difference should become a lot bigger over the next quarters.
 
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what would have happened if Apple had released bigger screens years ago

Hundreds of threads on this site wouldn't exist. In fact, Cisco and other big-iron vendors probably would have sold far fewer routers, servers, etc. because this debate wouldn't have driven so much Internet traffic.
 
317.2 versus 192.7 for 2014.

Yeah, looks like Samsung is really on their way out to me...

Let's start the doom and gloom. :cool:

Since the 6/6+, Samsung has been on the ropes. They pretty much have been living off niches where Apple has not been playing (large screens and low-end). But as of now, they have to live off low-margin entry level product.

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Interestingly, because of Apple's once-a-year-updates, their sales, revenue and profits do often fluctuate like that on a quarterly basis.

For financial reporting, quarters are compared to the same quarter last year. Always. Since Apple has been making major updates almost like clockwork on an annual basis, the fluctuation isn't all that great.
 
Hmmm....to bad nobody wants to buy one. :eek:

Mine is out for delivery today. I picked the Note 4 over the 6+ because of the lack of ram on the 6+.

I know two people at my job who have Note 4s and not one person I know has iPhones except me and that is a 5S.
 
Mine is out for delivery today. I picked the Note 4 over the 6+ because of the lack of ram on the 6+.

I know two people at my job who have Note 4s and not one person I know has iPhones except me and that is a 5S.

Wow...you should organize a Note 4 owners club at your company.

Congratulations on your new Note 4. Enjoy it while you can 'cause it might be one of the last phones Samsung produces. Hang on to it...it might eventually become a novelty item.
 
Wow...you should organize a Note 4 owners club at your company.

Congratulations on your new Note 4. Enjoy it while you can 'cause it might be one of the last phones Samsung produces. Hang on to it...it might eventually become a novelty item.

You know Samsung isn't going anywhere, right? I know you are obviously joking!
 
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Shipped and sold ara two different things.
Apple reports sold numbers
Samdung reports shipped numbers...
 
Interestingly, because of Apple's once-a-year-updates, their sales, revenue and profits do often fluctuate like that on a quarterly basis.

View attachment 527192

However, year over year each quarter tends to increase.

Apple is like someone on a trampoline, bouncing a little bit higher each time, and really dependent on a giant yearly push.

-

Samsung is a different dynamic, more of a smooth curve, with less radical changes per quarter.

View attachment 527196

They're like someone gliding to a height, then drifting downward. They need to figure out where the next updraft is.

Phones with folding displays could possibly fulfill that role.

The year over year was what I was referring to.

But the obvious reasons for the differences are release timelines. Samsung is constantly releasing new devices - their primary releases are late Spring and Fall, but they always have new stuff being released.

They also play in the low-end market in which annual updates/releases really aren't a big deal.

Apple has one release date each year. They play in one segment of the market.
 
Shipped and sold ara two different things.
Apple reports sold numbers
Samdung reports shipped numbers...

That doesn't make much difference anymore.

It made a difference for devices that failed completely - shipping a million devices and 800,000 are returned. It still makes a difference when someone claims they sold 10 million devices in three days, and really they were only shipped and are sold over three months.

But in the long term, it makes no difference.
 
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