Apple Surpassed Samsung as World's Largest Smartphone Maker in Fourth Quarter

[Elvergun]

Looks like Samsung is being sandwiched by the Chinese makers (Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo) coming from the low-end and Apple coming from the high-end.

.

Right now they are being sandwiched...but it looks like soon they will be displaced from second place by the Chinese makers. Will they be able to at least hold on to the number three spot? How far down will they fall?

They've got everything riding on these new models. It sucks to be Samsung...right about now.

 

[CEmajr]

Apple just had its biggest release ever with a larger screen phone.

Let's see how these numbers look the next 2 quarters when Samsung releases it's gs6 phones.

It's news to me that apple stopped selling iPhone 4s and 5cs for the low end? Is that true that apple only sells iPhone 6 and 6 plus now?

The iPhone 5c is .99 cents on verizon.is that not considered low end market?

Since when is a $450 phone low end? Low end is those $49-$199 junk devices Samsung sells by the boatload. Iphone ASP is over $680. Samsung's ASP is around $200. So that tells you what kind of devices each company is selling.

Also don't tell me that you seriously think an iPhone costs $.99

 

[AppleScruff1]

Well yeah, you have one direction when it comes to your posts! Nothing new to see here, you've often been asked to back up the things you say, and you never do.

Nothing to back up, I guessed what was happening in the thread from years of reading here. Maybe later I'll read it and see if I was close or not. Sorry it upsets you so much.

 

[the8thark]

When this:

holds top spot for 302 weeks like this man did:

Then I will be impressed. Apple and Samsung have traded top spot back and forth for ages. When Apple can hold it for a while then I'll be impressed.

 

[CEmajr]

On the flip side, I'm assuming being the largest seller is now unimportant and that numbers don't matter?

Which is it? Do they matter or not?

It matters but volume alone doesn't show anything. Selling tons of cheap devices at little to no profit margin isn't impressive nor does it really help the company in question. Selling tons of phones with high margins making tons of money for the company is a big deal. That's why we see Samsung's smartphone division is rapid decline and Apple's iPhone lineup at its most successful point ever despite them having near equal shipment volumes.

It's easy to give away phones to get people to buy based on price. It's far more of a challenge to get people to pay on average of $680 for your device, affording your company a large profit margin.

 

[the8thark]

In his defense, it was $600 even with a subsidy at the time. I wouldn't have an iPhone if it were still that price.

They cost even more now. The only difference is most people don't pay the price all in one go. They pay a little upfront and the rest with their phone bills over 24 months.

 

[Elvergun]

Apple and Samsung have traded top spot back and forth for ages. When Apple can hold it for a while then I'll be impressed.

Really? Did you not read the article?

The latest numbers from research firm Gartner reveal that Apple surpassed Samsung in worldwide smartphone sales during the fourth quarter of 2014 to become the world's largest smartphone maker. Samsung lost the top spot to Apple for the first time since 2011.

It's been "ages" since Apple held the top spot.

This is just bad news for Samsung. It's all going down hill for their mobile division. First they lose the top spot to Apple...and then they lose the second spot to Xiaomi. Will you be impressed then?

 

[the8thark]

Really? Did you not read the article?

I read the article. Apple won the 4Q2014 but samsung won 2014. What's your point?

----------

I'm assuming being the largest seller is now important and that numbers matter?

To the iSheep it matters. For the rest of us we know smartphone profit share is all that matters. And Apple totally kick everyone else's ass in that department.

 

[ani4ani]

Samsung produces less than 8% of the parts in an iPhone.

By number maybe, but more than 50% by value I would guess

 

[62tele]

Samsung's Galaxy/Note sales have been in the toilet. I have never seen a carrier ad for Apple promoting "buy an iPhone and get a free iPad" yet I've seen numerous such ads for Samsung "buy a phone, get a (Samsung) tablet for free".

Samsung really needed to hit a homerun to just slow Apple's momentum since the larger iPhones were released. Did they do that? We won't know for a while. Regardless of what reviewers say, it's what consumers say that matters.

Samsung achieved producing a much more attractive device over those cheap, plastic toy-like devices they previously made. This may keep some folks but I doubt it will persuade iPhone users to switch. Is the Galaxy S6 more compelling than it's Android competitors?

 

[B4U]

More likely...

...Xiaomi surpases Samsung.

Which they did in China...

 

[Trapezoid]

Nothing to back up, I guessed what was happening in the thread from years of reading here. Maybe later I'll read it and see if I was close or not. Sorry it upsets you so much.

Youd be wrong...again nothing new

----------

It matters but volume alone doesn't show anything. Selling tons of cheap devices at little to no profit margin isn't impressive nor does it really help the company in question. Selling tons of phones with high margins making tons of money for the company is a big deal. That's why we see Samsung's smartphone division is rapid decline and Apple's iPhone lineup at its most successful point ever despite them having near equal shipment volumes.

It's easy to give away phones to get people to buy based on price. It's far more of a challenge to get people to pay on average of $680 for your device, affording your company a large profit margin.

Exactly my point too. It matters but not by itself and definitely not when you're losing money.

Like I always say, I can guarantee there's no one at Samsung who was saying "we're losing money the last two years, but our market share is strong!"

 

[Savor]

When this: Image

holds top spot for 302 weeks like this man did:

Image

Then I will be impressed. Apple and Samsung have traded top spot back and forth for ages. When Apple can hold it for a while then I'll be impressed.

Motorola and Nokia have held the top spot even longer.

I think Motorola held it since cell phones' inception up until 1998. Then Nokia was top dog for at least over decade until 2011 when they decided to go WP. Samsung's rein is only a fraction of that. Apple could very much be like Big Brother, IBM, and practically dominate in technology for over a generation.

 

[cleirac]

I would never say Apple only targets high end. But they are priced on the 'higher end' (not taking into account subsidies)

its why the 5c was generally considered a failure by most tech geeks. Apple cam out with a "cheap" variant of their device, but still priced it in the upper end. $450 when it was released was only $200 less than the flagship device at the time, While most people (maybe incorrectly) was expecting a budget iphone. $450 was not "Budget"

I think we have to draw pictures with some of the people here.

I love BMW, Toyota and Lexus but the BMW=Apple (iOS only) outselling Samsung=Toyota+Lexus (only in the sense, some are sold/branded as Android+Windows+Tizen?) is quite a compelling and good analogy.

What happened last quarter was unprecedented. Maybe a fluke. Or maybe a story that will happen every quarter now. And probably, in the future Samsung will just be known only as a Lexus or Mercedes company (just like Apple ). Or maybe they will become like Amazon or Blackberry or Hyundai. Or Microsoft (almost too little, too late- controlling both hardware & software).

Anyway, just like BMW, Apple is regarded in the luxury market by which their products are sold at a premium even when they are already a year old technology. There is a big difference between $450 vs. $49-$99 priced products in the smartphone business. Not all BMWs are priced the same at super premium / highest end even when they are all new technologies / models for a given year.

 

[Glideslope]

Considering Apple released two phones in 2014, and Samsung released dozens, this is incredible, even if it's only a surge in the fourth quarter.

"It's Magical."

 

[the8thark]

Motorola and Nokia have held the top spot even longer.

I think Motorola held it since cell phones' inception up until 1998. Then Nokia was top dog for at least over decade until 2011 when they decided to go WP. Samsung's rein is only a fraction of that. Apple could very much be like Big Brother, IBM, and practically dominate in technology for over a generation.

We are talking smart phones here and not all phones. Most (or all) of the pre 1998 phones were not smart. So even though what you are saying is off topic, it's still correct.

 

[Palladium SG]

The removable battery and SD card doubtless sway a small fraction of buyers. Perhaps so do the handful of waterproof phones. But Apple has such an excellent reputation, refined UI, and expansive app ecosystem that it will still be years before anyone can surpass the experience they offer.

Firstly, the user segment that wants iOS and the user base that wants high-end Android with microSD/removable batteries are pretty much non over-lapping, and now they giving up that segment foolishly to emulate Apple that can only end in disaster.

Secondly, there are now so many Android vendors out there that does both hardware and software better than Samsung for much lower price points. E.g The low-end Xiaomis outspecs Samsungs well over twice the price the yet the Xiaomis comes with a much more refined UI with zero bloat that gives a much better Android experience in the real world, small wonder why Samsung sales are tanking in Asia.

 

[Ploki]

Apple just had its biggest release ever with a larger screen phone.

Let's see how these numbers look the next 2 quarters when Samsung releases it's gs6 phones.

It's news to me that apple stopped selling iPhone 4s and 5cs for the low end? Is that true that apple only sells iPhone 6 and 6 plus now?

The iPhone 5c is .99 cents on verizon.is that not considered low end market?

Its irrelevant how much you pay for it. Verizon still pays apple full price. What people are talking about is what companies charge for it, and samsung has many cheaper offerings than apple.

 

[KopThat]

Gotta give Samsung time to copy Apple's homework again....

 

[Michael Scrip]

Since when is a $450 phone low end? Low end is those $49-$199 junk devices Samsung sells by the boatload. Iphone ASP is over $680. Samsung's ASP is around $200. So that tells you what kind of devices each company is selling.

Also don't tell me that you seriously think an iPhone costs $.99

Thank you.

It's funny to hear all these people claiming a $450 iPhone is "low-end"

$450 may be "low-end" for Apple just because it's their entry-level model... but it's still super expensive compared to the junk the other companies are peddling.

By this logic... the $899 11" Macbook Air is also "low-end" since it's Apple's entry-level laptop.

So I wonder what we'd call a $199 laptop from another company... "sub-sub-low-end" ???

"No-end" ??

 

[mi7chy]

Everyone upgraded because they've been deprived of a larger display so it may not be repeatable until the next big thing like precision pen, AMOLED, curved display, 2GB+ DRAM, etc.

 

[Savor]

Usually I don't check on BGR, Gizmodo, or whatever site that prefers writing love letters to Apple. But that 2nd and 3rd comment from the top made me go AMEN...

bgr.com/2015/03/01/samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-review-pt-1-hands-on/#

Samsung is not just a phone manufacturer. They make tons of money and they take chances, and some things work where others don't. Samsung is a true visionary of a company, and they aren't afraid to put their money on the line to try out new ideas. They probably spend more money in a month on R&D than Apple does in a year, because they are true innovators, never stopping trying out new things, even having the balls to put their ideas in actual products instead of applying for patents, then suing other companies that actually build things. People don't realize that without Samsung Mobile, the iPhone would still be 3.5 inches and running on 3G because "no one really needs high speed data or a bigger screen".

Other than TouchID which wasn't the first fingerprint scanner on a phone btw thanks to Motorola Atrix, I don't think Apple has really innovated in hardware since 2007. The newer features is based on proprietary software and generally rehashed of older ideas from other platforms. AirDrop is a copycat of Android Beam and iMessages is a copycat of BBM. Samsung was forward-thinking with the Note 1 and could be forward-thinking with the S6 edge.

It is thinking outside the box and getting out of your own comfort zone instead of playing it safe, rehashing old features, calling them new, and then suing others who actually take more chances than you do. We would still be stuck with toy-like sized phones made for kids if it weren't for those Hummer phones the late Steve Jobs kept dissing about. But wait when iPhones have their own three-sided display supplied by Sharp or LG by 2018... Revolutionary. Magical. Forward-thinking. Best iPhone they ever made. Cha-ching! More money in the bank refining an older idea from a rival company. Apple will refine it but it is like tracing a drawing or simply paraphrasing an original quote that wasn't yours to begin with.

 

[himanshumodi]

That's absolutely crazy when you consider Samsung targets the full range of prices all the way down to dirt cheap while Apple focuses on the high end.

That's like BMW outselling not just Lexus but the whole Toyota division too! Almost unheard of in business.

Not to mention countries. The samsung vs. apple vs. other makers mix would be very different outside of US, UK and a few other countries where Apple dominates. Incredibly, Apple's domination in it's markets makes up for wherever it lags behind.

 

[MacBH928]

Iphone is starting to become like Windows for PC in a good way. But I am always worried when globally we have 2-3 alternatives.

 

[Trapezoid]

Usually I don't check on BGR, Gizmodo, or whatever site that prefers writing love letters to Apple. But that 2nd and 3rd comment from the top made me go AMEN...

bgr.com/2015/03/01/samsung-galaxy-s6-edge-review-pt-1-hands-on/#


Other than TouchID which wasn't the first fingerprint scanner on a phone btw thanks to Motorola Atrix, I don't think Apple has really innovated in hardware since 2007. The newer features is based on proprietary software and generally rehashed of older ideas from other platforms. AirDrop is a copycat of Android Beam and iMessages is a copycat of BBM. Samsung was forward-thinking with the Note 1 and could be forward-thinking with the S6 edge.

It is thinking outside the box and getting out of your own comfort zone instead of playing it safe, rehashing old features, calling them new, and then suing others who actually take more chances than you do. We would still be stuck with toy-like sized phones made for kids if it weren't for those Hummer phones the late Steve Jobs kept dissing about. But wait when iPhones have their own three-sided display supplied by Sharp or LG by 2018... Revolutionary. Magical. Forward-thinking. Best iPhone they ever made. Cha-ching! More money in the bank refining an older idea from a rival company. Apple will refine it but it is like tracing a drawing or simply paraphrasing an original quote that wasn't yours to begin with.

So once again, eventually phones like the iPhone would have been created because the market was leaning that way so apple doing it meant nothing, but if Samsung hasn't created a phablet, the phablet would never exist?

Lol. The logic is hilarious.