Samsung top smartphone seller worldwide or not?

[Rogifan]

IHS iSuppli claims Apple sold more smartphones than Samsung. Strategy Analytics claims the reverse (this is the one most news outlets are reporting, no surprise there). So which is it and why are the estimates so wildly off? I can only imagine what the 'analysts' and tech writers would say if Apple ever stopped publishing sales figures. Yet none of them seem to care that Samsung, HTC, Amazon etc. refuse to disclose sales. They just lap up any report that comes out, eve ones that compare estimated shipments to actual sales.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/samsung-coyness-puts-smartphone-crown-204323689.html

 

[neiltc13]

It's not a matter of "refusing" to disclose sales. Think about what these companies have to do to come up with these numbers for a minute.

Apple is able to publish "sales" figures because it has iTunes and it knows how many phones have been activated. However, Samsung, HTC etc don't have this option and it's much more difficult for them to keep track of what's going on.

For what it's worth, I think ALL of the companies (including Apple) do a lot of estimation on this - when you think about how many phones are sold, and how far in advance some of these reports are prepared it's surely impossible to give an accurate number.

 

[Rogifan]

Hmm....I have a hard time believing Samsung doesn't know how many phones it's selling. Even still they don't even provide shipped numbers. They've got to know that.

 

[kdarling]

Apple is able to publish "sales" figures because it has iTunes and it knows how many phones have been activated. However, Samsung, HTC etc don't have this option and it's much more difficult for them to keep track of what's going on.

Apple doesn't use activations in their quarterly reports. (Many carriers use activations because they can also count used devices being re-activated by a new owner.)

According to their SEC filings, Apple counts both the number of devices sold directly to end users from their online and physical Apple stores, and all devices sold (shipped) to retailers.

The upshot is that both Apple and Samsung are selling lots of smartphones.

 

[Rogifan]

Apple doesn't use activations in their quarterly reports. (Many carriers use activations because they can also count used devices being re-activated by a new owner.)

According to their SEC filings, Apple counts both the number of devices sold directly to end users from their online and physical Apple stores, and all devices sold (shipped) to retailers.

The upshot is that both Apple and Samsung are selling lots of smartphones.

So how is it then that Apple can provide numbers (sold, shipped or a combination of both) but with Samsung we rely on estimates provided by analysts who probably built their estimates based on previous estimates. I have no doubt Samsung is selling a lot of phones I'm just trying to figure out how it is Apple can provide sales figures but no one else can/does. Yet we get these analyst reports of estimated which all the tech and financial sites report report as gospel. This quarter there were two separate reports with a 12M difference between them for Samsung. So which report is right?

 

[kdarling]

I have no doubt Samsung is selling a lot of phones I'm just trying to figure out how it is Apple can provide sales figures but no one else can/does.

Obviously others can give figures, but choose not to.

Samsung actually only started to report numbers over the past few years, and now has gone back to their normal secrecy. So their current silence is not as unusual as many newcomers think.

The whole point is to not give extra information away to competitors.

That's why Apple themselves don't give some potentially helpful details. For example, they don't break down iPhone sales figures by different models, because that would reveal how well their 99 cent and 99 dollar versions are doing in the USA, not to mention how each memory size and color does.

 

[jeffe]

Yep - Samsung only recently stopped mentioning sales figures. I think it was a smart move for them.