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Not mind boggling at all. Nokia was a beast. That 3310 was from 17 years ago. The year before that they sold 150 million of the 3210. They sold 250 million of the 1100 in 2003 and another 250 million of the 1100 bar style in 2005. What's mind boggling is Nokia's descent from market leader to an afterthought in such a short time. Android murdered that company.

It is undenieable to agree Android overtook Nokia but in this case it is unlikely that Apple would murder Samsung. They are subsitute each other for many people. Apple overtakes in Q4 but Samsung's share is still bigger...
 
Sure hope Apple is able to put together an exciting, innovative phone for the 10th anniversary edition this year. They might be able to keep up this growth (and stop disappointing their core customers)!

I think they will announce something great for the iPhone 8/10 anniversary of the iPhone. Early rumours are saying some really nice upgrades so far.
 
Has there ever been a comparison of top-end smartphones, rather than expensive iPhone vs €49 2GB storage "smartphones"? Because really – I love my S7 and can't see myself returning to iOS unless it is MAJORLY revamped, but comparing iPhone numbers to Samsung's overall sales is like comparing sales of BMWs to sales of all other vehicles, including bicycles.
 
What the article doesn't make clear is that the margin between Apple and Samsung for the quarter is extremely thin, and the fact that Samsung wasn't able to sell one of their flagship phones, I'd say that Samsung actually blew Apple out of the water considering that handicap.

Well how many non-flagship phones make up Samsung's sales? How many thousands of other non-smartphone/low spec handsets are they selling round the clock? And how many of Samsung's 'sales' were actually sales, rather than just units shipped? Apple report on sales, not units shipped. Samsung don't. Half of Samsung's sales could be sitting in a warehouse for all we know.

If anything, it's Apple's sales blowing Samsung out of the water for the last few years, because they give us confirmed numbers which continue to impress.
 
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Not mind boggling at all. Nokia was a beast. That 3310 was from 17 years ago. The year before that they sold 150 million of the 3210. They sold 250 million of the 1100 in 2003 and another 250 million of the 1100 bar style in 2005. What's mind boggling is Nokia's descent from market leader to an afterthought in such a short time. Android murdered that company.
And the only thing those Nokia devices could be used for was to make/receive calls and text messages. Oh, and a snake game.

The speed with which Nokia themselves became obsolete is definitely the hard part to fathom.
 
Very impressive considering the fact that Apple only sells high end smartphones while Samsung's sales are mostly made up of low to mid range devices.

That can't be stressed enough. For example, one of Samsung's most popular smartphones is their Galaxy Express S3. They're very popular for pre-paid month-to-month plans, such as AT&T's "Go-Phone" program.

My wife bought a Samsung Galaxy Express S3 two months ago at the AT&T store for $80 - no way was she going to spend $500+ for a premium Apple/Samsung/Google phone.

Incredibly inexpensive, but it's still a good phone, even being five years old. The AT&T rep said they sell a ton of them due to the low price and decent feature set.

As an amusing anecdote, apparently the Galaxy Express 3 is the smartphone trump uses.
 
It's more like Samsung's failure than Apple's own victory.

I guess rationalization is one way for the "Apple is doomed" crowd to deal with failure, loss or disappointment.
Samsung stumbled: far worse than "antenna gate" or the bogus "bend gate". It stumbled on a massive scale. What does that say about them?
In the absence of major transformative innovation, slow and steady wins the race.
 
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It's not clickbait, it's exactly what it says. The title states Apple overtakes Samsung as top smartphone vendor in Q4 2016. The numbers show Apple sold 78.3 million in Q4 '16, whilst Samsung sold 77.5 million in Q4 '16. 78.3 is more than 77.5.

Actually, this article is what you call "Statistical Bias" :) So Apple sold 1.2 million more phones in Q4, but Samsung sold 94 million more phones in all of 2016. Yup! Apple is destroying Samsung! Rah! Rah! Rah!!1!

Every single corporation does this. Apple/Samsung/Microsoft, they all do it. They need to show some kind of positive out come for their financials. And as most humans, we are quick to read and judge and be bias loyal to this type of circle jerk.

But hey, as long as every side feels happy about themselves, who cares ;)
 
Well you can thank Samsung for that one with their exploding phones, rightly or not it has hurt their reputation which would hurt sales. Question is will teh S* / Note whatever fix that or not?
 
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Very impressive considering the fact that Apple only sells high end smartphones while Samsung's sales are mostly made up of low to mid range devices.
It is impressive Apple can sell that many phones. Is it more impressive than what Samsung has been doing? I already know you would say it is. But generally speaking, it really isn't. Company A sells a product that can only be purchased from Company A. If you want it, you have no choice but to get it from Company A. Company B sells a product that can be purchased from Companies C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and the rest of the alphabet. Even with that competition, Company B still manages to outsell everyone. That to me is just as impressive, if not more.
 
Remember back when Apple fans liked not being part of just another mass consumer product owned by everyone from kids to grannies, rich or poor?

How things have changed. Now being a tiny piece of a massive group is okay.

/s

Speaking of massive groups, phone sales from the popular "Others" continue to wipe everyone else off the map :p
 
Did this research firm just lift Apple's iPhone unit numbers from yesterday's earning release and not adjust them to account for the six days in September which Apple's own numbers include? That's surely what it looks like, but maybe that's not what they did?

Or did they just overestimate iPhone units for the quarter and their overestimation just happened to match Apple's own numbers for the quarter plus most of a week in September? Or did they time their 4th quarter period to match Apple's fiscal first quarter (i.e. make it run from Sep. 25th through Dec. 31st) and estimate all of the other phone makers' numbers for that quarter plus period as well?


EDIT: I would add that my guess is that it's the first option, which would mean that - to the extent that research firm's number for Samsung is accurate, which it may well not be - Apple likely didn't overtake Samsung in the fourth quarter. That is, not on a sell-in basis which these numbers seem to be.
 
Apple has gone downhill ever since Steve Jobs passe... wait what?

Just because Apple sells more phones, doesn't mean they have a better product or is going in the right direction....

Think of when MS Windows 95 came out, it was unusable and was trash compared to the Mac OS.... But, they sold like crazy....

Actually you can pretty much replace 95 with any other version except maybe 10.
 
Good for them, the iPhone is a great product.

Now if only Apple could be bothered to put some effort in all their other products, perhaps they wouldn't be hanging off iPhone sales to keep the rest of the company afloat.
 
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It is impressive Apple can sell that many phones. Is it more impressive than what Samsung has been doing? I already know you would say it is. But generally speaking, it really isn't. Company A sells a product that can only be purchased from Company A. If you want it, you have no choice but to get it from Company A. Company B sells a product that can be purchased from Companies C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and the rest of the alphabet. Even with that competition, Company B still manages to outsell everyone. That to me is just as impressive, if not more.

I think your reasoning fails, that is only true if people buy phones depending on the operating system. Which is not, it is mostly usability and other customer experiences people buy a product, and from that perspective phone A from company A is just another phone like C, D, E, F, G, H and I from any other company.
 
Wow. It is one thing for Apple to take all of the profits for the entire smartphone industry (they always do)...it is another thing to be in the lead with units sold as well.
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Good for them, the iPhone is a great product.

Now if only Apple could be bothered to put some effort in all their other products, perhaps they wouldn't be hanging off iPhone sales to keep the rest of the company afloat.

Do you even look at the numbers? Most companies in Apple's position would stop putting valuable iPhone effort into so many other great products.
 
"I think the smartphone is still in the early innings of the game," Cook said during the earnings call. "App developers are still inventing and there are some exciting things in the pipeline that I feel really good about."

So another 5 years of rinse, repeat and spin.
Annual upgrades with some 'magical' new feature.

This does not bode well for new Mac development. With the iPad on the decline, you'd think maybe focus on what people want...desktops and laptops.
 
This makes me sad. Apple will, under this leadership, follow the dollar by the easiest route. If making money is your only goal then OK. But Apple could be again the world leader in computer hardware and operating systems at a truly creative professional level. This would give a gold edged stamp to everything they do: like Renault and Formula 1. What Apple did to FCP, the Mac Pro, the iMac and the Mini told the world that they only really care about kids texting their class mates. And what they do with pricing and profit margins tells everyone they just want your cash.
Apple have undermined my respect and confidence so I will never buy another Apple product new. My new desktop is a refurbed Mac Pro 5.1 and I have just upgraded my Macbook with RAM and an SSD for a 15th of the cost of a new computer.
 
Their results really surprised me. I had heard so much doom-and-gloom predictions about their sales. I guess Tim Cook really does know what he's doing. But it still is a bit of a concern that the iPhone now accounts for nearly 70% of Apple's income.
 
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