Apple Overtakes Samsung As World's Top Smartphone Vendor in Q4 2016

[Michael Scrip]

Note that Apple and Samsung each lost market share by about 2 points. The real wiiners are Oppo, Huawei and Vivo.

Yes... Apple's and Samsung's "share" went down a little bit from Q42015 to Q42016.

But those two companies together still represent 34% of the market. Over 1/3 of all smartphones sold last quarter were made by Apple and Samsung.

Does that really make them "losers" because of a couple percentage points?

The smartphone market is 438 million units in a quarter and almost 1.5 billion units in a year.

A little change in market share for a company in either direction doesn't really mean a lot.

I see what you're saying... and you're absolutely right about Apple's and Samsung's smaller share this year versus last year.

But it's kinda insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Malibu31]

Better value for money? Let's see that after 2-3 years when you sell the phone.

My observation has been that IPhone resale value is usually the best of all phones after the first year or two.

Samsung has gotten better at resale value over the last few years. They're the top of the pack when it comes to Androids, with Google not far behind.

I can attest the reason for the big drop in price later in the year for the Galaxy S line is due to a Note release later in the year. This also affects other Android devices, as well. It even happened last year since I bought an S7 Edge at $460 in Mint condition, even when the Note 7 was recalled. Could it be S7 saturation in the market? Maybe. This effect happens to Apple as well with the iPhone SE now.

 

[Carnegie]

I'm not questioning whether or not Apple sells phones quickly. I was questioning what you wrote. It was kind of out there. As for inventory being out there... you must remember Apple wrote down a ton inventory in the 2nd Qtr in 2016 and did a $2+ billion dollar channel inventory reduction in the 3rd Qtr 2016.

Like I asked... do we think many Apple products get sent back to Apple because they couldn't find a buyer?

Well, an inventory write down and a channel inventory reduction says that yes, from time to time, Apple ships more than it sells and a correction has to be made. That's not saying it's every quarter but it does happen. I'm sure someone can go back through their quarterly reports to find the instances.

Based on what you mentioned in the first post above and then your answer to Michael Scrip below it, I think you (or someone) might have misunderstood something that Mr. Cook said in Apple's 2016 Q3 earnings call. (If that's not the case, then I'll just clarify so that others might know what we're talking about.) What he said wasn't about Apple writing down product in the channel (as some companies have needed to do, e.g., with products that wouldn't sell). It wasn't Apple taking back product or heavily discounting it for their retail partners.

That was the kind of channel draw down I referred to in one of my other posts. It means that more product got sold out of the channel than Apple sold into it. It means that the 'shipped' numbers for those quarters were actually below the 'sold' numbers. Mr. Cook was making the point that the sell-through for some products (mostly iPhones) was better than what the reported numbers indicated.

Depending on, e.g. the time of year and product cycles, Apple routinely decreases or increases channel inventory. Sometimes decreases happen because products don't sell as fast at certain times of the year so Apple doesn't think it needs as much channel inventory at those times, or they can happen in preparation for a new model being released. They can also happen because Apple oversupplied the channel in a previous quarter as you suggest. That's what happened in Q1 2016, Apple had a larger than usual channel build in that quarter. So Apple slowed the rate at which it sold products into the channel in subsequent quarters to allow sell-through to catch up. But the decreases in channel inventory didn't come from products getting sent back to Apple and Apple didn't write down inventory.

 

[crashoverride77]

My observation has been that IPhone resale value is usually the best of all phones after the first year or two.

Samsung has gotten better at resale value over the last few years. They're the top of the pack when it comes to Androids, with Google not far behind.

I can attest the reason for the big drop in price later in the year for the Galaxy S line is due to a Note release later in the year. This also affects other Android devices, as well. It even happened last year since I bought an S7 Edge at $460 in Mint condition, even when the Note 7 was recalled. Could it be S7 saturation in the market? Maybe. This effect happens to Apple as well with the iPhone SE now.

Thats my point. People that claim Apple is too expensive always miss this. There is no argument, I recently sold an iPhone 5s (with scratches, no cable etc) for 200+ Dollars. Good look doing that with a 3+ year old Android phone.

 

[Malibu31]

Thats my point. People that claim Apple is too expensive always miss this. There is no argument, I recently sold an iPhone 5s (with scratches, no cable etc) for 200+ Dollars. Good look doing that with a 3+ year old Android phone.

A year ago I bought Galaxy S3s in good condition for a trade in promotion for AT&T at the time (you can trade in any phone worth $10 to AT&T) & I would get bill credits for it. Some S3s cost $70, which I thought was a decent amount. Not $200+ though You got money for that 5s

 

[kdarling]

Thats my point. People that claim Apple is too expensive always miss this. There is no argument, I recently sold an iPhone 5s (with scratches, no cable etc) for 200+ Dollars. Good look doing that with a 3+ year old Android phone.

According to research done a couple of years ago, only about 20% of owners sell their used iPhone (30% are handed down, 50% end up in a drawer). So for the majority, its cost can still be a factor.

OTOH, if you can't afford full cost every time and/or like to trade up / sell, then yes the iPhone is a great choice.

 

[I7guy]

According to research done a couple of years ago, only about 20% of owners sell their used iPhone (30% are handed down, 50% end up in a drawer). So for the majority, its cost can still be a factor.

OTOH, if you can't afford full cost every time and/or like to trade up / sell, then yes the iPhone is a great choice.

Those 20%, which can amount to a fair number (10s of millions?) recoup some of the cost although the flagships tend to sell at the same price. What's interesting is the price 3 years down the line.