Samsung, depending on which carrier phone you have. Verizon S8 made in Vietnam, T-Mobile S8 made in China, AT&T S8 made in South Korea.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple May Briefly Drop to World's Third Largest Smartphone Maker For First Time Since 2011
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Samsung, depending on which carrier phone you have. Verizon S8 made in Vietnam, T-Mobile S8 made in China, AT&T S8 made in South Korea.
Apple doesn't care so much that they sued for rounded corners. To me that sounds like Apple is very afraid.
Add to that the amount of personal trips Cook has made to China, all for nothing if they are in 3rd place now. Also iMessage isn't a strong app in China, so no lock-in for most users there.
Apple. Doesn’t. Care. About. Market. share. How is this not obvious by now?
It's easy to generalize that Apple overcharges. My personal opinion? They charge what the market will accept. I don't see anything wrong with that per se. Get that money if it's there to be gotten. As a consumer, to me it's a value judgement. Is the value of this product worth paying X? If yes, then I ask my wife if I can buy it. If no, it stays on the shelf for someone else to make a judgement about purchasing it.
I tend not to get caught up in Company A makes B amount of profit. It has nothing to do with my purchasing decisions. I do get a giggle out of the people who take it as a point of pride that Apple makes larger profits, as if it somehow validates them somehow. Even bigger giggle from people who seemingly only know how to present PROFIT as the answer to every question.
Why wouldn't Apple care? China makes up 25% of their revenue, and their China sales figures has dropped 14% and counting. They hired a new person to oversea operations in China last month to try and stop the bleeding.
Companies capitalizing off of Apple's future-proofed design from 2007.
The "best" phone is purely subjective. Each person has his or her own needs. For me, the iPhone *is* the best phone. It doesn't need to be the fastest or have the most features. It just needs to do what I want it to do without any hinderance. And my current iPhone SE is exactly that... yes, a phone that is more than a year old based on last-generation tech. Yet it still outperforms any Android phone in terms of pure usability (for my use cases).
As for value, I do agree with Apple's overly high rates in one area — cords and cables. I understand that Apple's cords and cables are well-engineered and safe to use, while in good condition. But for too many years, their laptop cords have been using a flawed design — the entire thing needs to be replaced if just one part of the cord becomes worn out. A $100 replacement cost. To me, that's a flawed design and a major disservice to consumers and the environment. Thankfully, USB-C is changing that and the old design is being phased out.
The "best" phone is purely subjective. Each person has his or her own needs. For me, the iPhone *is* the best phone. It doesn't need to be the fastest or have the most features. It just needs to do what I want it to do without any hinderance. And my current iPhone SE is exactly that... yes, a phone that is more than a year old based on last-generation tech. Yet it still outperforms any Android phone in terms of pure usability (for my use cases).
As for value, I do agree with Apple's overly high rates in one area — cords and cables. I understand that Apple's cords and cables are well-engineered and safe to use, while in good condition. But for too many years, their laptop cords have been using a flawed design — the entire thing needs to be replaced if just one part of the cord becomes worn out. A $100 replacement cost. To me, that's a flawed design and a major disservice to consumers and the environment. Thankfully, USB-C is changing that and the old design is being phased out.
That would be worse for Apple than Samsung? I would think that Samsung would be is truly bad shape with a major war in Korea.
And what are these possibilities that the iPhone 8 has to offer? You were able to get one ahead of launch and compare it to Huawei's?
Exactly. Apple doesn't spend a single second worrying about who pushed out more units in the last quarter, for any of their products. That's never been the name of the game for them, and they seem to have done kinda okay not worrying about being the units winner. Talking about rank as if it matters is just turning this into a sporting competition where the largest number of units is the champion, and everyone else is the loser. It doesn't work that way. At all.
Isn't this essentially the same article as a few days ago with a different click-bait headline?
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/08/04/huawei-att-tentative-sales-agreement/
I said it there and I'll say it here... Nothing to see. Huawei is just another Android handset maker. A large one to be sure, but it makes no difference to Apple whatsoever. If you're an iPhone/iOS user, Huawei isn't going to change the game for you at all. Not even a little bit. They'll just be one more of the hundreds of varieties of Android phones sitting on carriers shelves. Huawei IS competition for Samsung, not for Apple.
There's really just iOS/Apple, and all the Android phones/manufacturers. This doesn't change that dynamic in the least.
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/08/04/huawei-att-tentative-sales-agreement/
I said it there and I'll say it here... Nothing to see. Huawei is just another Android handset maker. A large one to be sure, but it makes no difference to Apple whatsoever. If you're an iPhone/iOS user, Huawei isn't going to change the game for you at all. Not even a little bit. They'll just be one more of the hundreds of varieties of Android phones sitting on carriers shelves. Huawei IS competition for Samsung, not for Apple.
There's really just iOS/Apple, and all the Android phones/manufacturers. This doesn't change that dynamic in the least.
It makes me crazy when people make this blanket statement... Competition is not always great. Zune, for example, was a huge waste of resources and had no measurable impact on the market-- Microsoft could have applied that talent much more effectively somewhere else.
Sometimes competition leads to innovation, but sometimes it leads to a race to the bottom. Price competition more often leads to unreliable, disposable, poorly built junk wrapped in sleek marketing. Look at what happened to PCs, and printers. Just look at the shell that HP has become.
I'm not saying that's what Huawei's rise is going to bring, maybe there is room for groundbreaking innovations in smartphones that we haven't seen, but if it's a battle for market share among Android behemoths, my expectation is that most of that fight will be marketing and price cuts. Maybe that's good for some people, but not for me.
Last edited:
The whole argument is flawed. Market share is one metric and depending on product and product category it matters or matters not. The car analogy is best suited here. Mercedes, BMW, Fiat, Ford, Honda, they serve different markets and play to those markets. The key metric, the one that matters is - are you making enough money to thrive, invest and keep going. The Chinese companies are basically government run concerns, borrowing money and leveraging growth through the power of the central government. And I think going forward Chinese citizens will buy more and more that is designed and made by Chinese concerns. They have the same goofball thinking as some here have with the 'Buy American' notion. As that takes hold and China can service their own population with products designed and made in China all American companies will see sales fall.
Zune flopped because it was a lousy product. Had it been a good product, and not flopped, how would that have been bad for you? Elaborate.
That's the typical America-centric mindset, who continue insisting on iPhone being the best. Walk around the world, you will see many people are changing their opinion on that. Maybe they are "wrong", but it is the reality and that is why Apple should, and in fact is already, feeling worried.
Again, this is very typically true here, but quite far from reality around the world. For example, some people consider Huawei, or as matter of factor even Vivo or Oppo, offer the better camera functionality. Most people here care mostly about whether it's an ios or Android, and me personally too, but there are quite a large a group of customers, specially in China, Korea and etc, who choose their phones purely based on which camera they like.
OMG, FFS, just check out the current low-end iphone. it's called iphone SE [and it's great btw, out of 5 phones]
then check out what huawei has as its low end "smartphone": HUAWEI Ascend G7 [out of 34 different phones - just on the US market] but in EU it's a different one, called Ascend G300.
then define what does it mean "being the largest smartphone maker"? units? revenue? profit?
and who tf cares anyway?
then check out what huawei has as its low end "smartphone": HUAWEI Ascend G7 [out of 34 different phones - just on the US market] but in EU it's a different one, called Ascend G300.
then define what does it mean "being the largest smartphone maker"? units? revenue? profit?
and who tf cares anyway?
Apple's revenue in China has been declining YoY for the past 4 quarters. You think Apple doesn't worry that their revenue is falling in their most important market?
You don't think South Korea would be effected if the U.S. goes to war with the North? Seriously? One of Kim Jong Un's first acts would be to attempt the leveling of Seoul.
I don't just mean Apple either. Samsung and LG shut down would paralyze the entire industry.
How does knowing that are Apple charging a higher price so they can maintain a higher profit margin make the phone any better?