Samsung smartphones outsell Apple

[=X=]

Originally Posted by petermillard

So that's shipments i.e. out of the factory into the 'channel', not sales to customers.

It's anybody's guess what that actually means, but hey, let's not let niggly little details like actual sales figures get in the way, right??

Well my guess is that it translates to the story below.

While sold and shipped are not the same, there has to be a strong correlation between the two.

Samsung: Record Mobile Profits On Sales Growth Of 300 Percent


SAMSUNG GALAXY S II SWEEP BEST NEW MOBILE DEVICE CATEGORY AT 4G WORLD

While Samsung makes many smartphones its the Galaxy line that is killing the competition.

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[kjk]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

I'm more surprised by their lack of success in other areas than I am by their success in the cell phone market. I think that Apple's lead in smartphone sales for a quarter was basically an anomaly and that this is a more normal result.

Samsung makes over 100 phones, covering almost all income levels. It has phones that compete directly against Apple phones (SGII) and phones that, while still smartphones, are not designed to compete with first tier phones (i.e., the continuum). Samsung is in almost every country and on every carrier.

But as long as Apple is making 2/3 of the profits for the entire industry, I don't think that they will change what they are doing.

There is no reason to discount these numbers because they represent numbers shipped rather than sold. Shipping is *almost always* a good proxy for sales. It turned out not to be in the tablet market because so many non-Apple tablets had such bad sales...but in most mature markets, it is a decent indicator. And there is certainly no evidence that retailers are sitting on large quantities of unsold samsung phones.

I agree that it is highly unlikely there are a bunch of phones sitting around in inventory, mostly because they aren't a retail item like tablets, but more a carrier experience. Plus given how poorly their other divisions did, it's obvious their profits had to come from a great mobile quarter.

I do note though that those numbers aren't from Samsung, either shipped or sold. They are an estimate from Strategy Analytics. Samsung is no longer reporting sales numbers for mobile products.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Samsung makes over 100 phones, covering almost all income levels. It has phones that compete directly against Apple phones (SGII) and phones that, while still smartphones, are not designed to compete with first tier phones (i.e., the continuum). Samsung is in almost every country and on every carrier.

The figures are for smartphones only, not all phones. And with Samsung sitting at almost 28 million and Apple at only 17+ million you can discount a substantial portion being unsold and Samsung would still be way ahead in actual retail sales.

As far as the low end of the market is concerned, don't forget that Apple is still trying to cover it with their 3GS.

[CommonReader]

You should also keep in mind that Samsung's biggest customer is Apple. Apple buys several billion USD worth of Samsung components each year. Therefore Samsung earns a sizable profit because of Apple's success.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

You should also keep in mind that Samsung's biggest customer is Apple. Apple buys several billion USD worth of Samsung components each year. Therefore Samsung earns a sizable profit because of Apple's success.

Which really goes to show that Samsung's quality is at least as good as Apple's. They have the technology, Apple just buys the parts and then contracts assembly out to Foxconn.

[kartu]

Originally Posted by Razi

I saw this news on BBC website and came streight here fully expecting it to be present in 'News' section. I wasn't wrong.

From my personal experience. I have been trying to get hold of a 4Gs iPhone with any capacity and in any colur but can't find it anywhere in London and my service providers (O2 UK) can't supply an upgrade because they don't have any handsets in stock. On the other hand Samsung and Nokia phones are offered for free on cheap tariffs everywhere. This is non-news to us because these cheap handsets are sold bucket-loads in the Far East and South Asia. Cheap would always sell more, specially in countries with huge populations.

Define "cheap" pretty please.
Galaxy II has MSRP of 649 Euro (street price of about 450 Euro).
That is by no means "cheap" nor for UK, neither for anywhere else.

Nokia makes great hardware, but haven't harnessed dumb animations, hence is badmouthed everywhere in the world, on top of being badmouthed in US for, you know, not being a US company...

[carpetmojo]

Not that I even have a smartphone, but it seems a Very Good Thing that Samsung are getting these figures 'cos they cover a far wide market.
Perhaps they are tailoring their products to the buyer rather than saying this is what you will buy, we know best ?

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Not that I even have a smartphone, but it seems a Very Good Thing that Samsung are getting these figures 'cos they cover a far wide market.
Perhaps they are tailoring their products to the buyer rather than saying this is what you will buy, we know best ?

Kids always love it when their moms cook them a variety of eats daily. Instead of serving up Brocolli and mashed potatoes every single day because it's easier to produce and troubleshoot something when its the only thing you cook

[Razi]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Not that I even have a smartphone, but it seems a Very Good Thing that Samsung are getting these figures 'cos they cover a far wide market.
Perhaps they are tailoring their products to the buyer rather than saying this is what you will buy, we know best ?

Or maybe because it is free on cheap tariffs. I can have a Galaxy top of the range phone for free on a £20 per month plan.

http://www.affordablemobiles.co.uk/c...s&siteid=20363

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Which really goes to show that Samsung's quality is at least as good as Apple's. They have the technology, Apple just buys the parts and then contracts assembly out to Foxconn.

Samsung has good quality. But Apple doesn't "just buy the parts" (or at least not all of them). Apple designed the A5 chip that is manufactured by Samsung, for example - this is probably the most important part of the phone. On the other hand, the flash and RAM chips that Apple buys from Samsung are AFAICT just off the shelf parts, basically.

It does look like Apple is diversifying away from Samsung - they have a new manufacturer lined up for the A6 chip, and more suppliers for the standard RAM and flash chips (although they may use Samsung for some of these parts as well). Of course Apple will also need to evaluate whether the new chipmaker is as good as samsung.

[kartu]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Samsung has good quality. But Apple doesn't "just buy the parts" (or at least not all of them). Apple designed the A5 chip that is manufactured by Samsung, for example - this is probably the most important part of the phone. On the other hand, the flash and RAM chips that Apple buys from Samsung are AFAICT just off the shelf parts, basically.

It's not that clear who has _actually_ designed the chip. I doubt Apple had know-how in house, to actually do it.

Samsung doesn't simply have "good quality", it has exclusive screen quality. Most reviews somehow manage not to notice how devastatingly superior AMOLED screens are. Had it been Apple, we'd had detailed reviews focusing on screens and it would become one of the major selling points.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by kartu

Define "cheap" pretty please.
Galaxy II has MSRP of 649 Euro (street price of about 450 Euro).
That is by no means "cheap" nor for UK, neither for anywhere else.

I thought cheap was a fair and accurate description.

I know how fantastic the GSII is and the newest Nexus looks good. I suspect my next phone will be another Android. However, I'm not sure all consumers are looking for top of the line stuff, or even understand the differences. I have been amazed how often people ask if my Kindle is an iPad. Next time you are in a cell phone store pay attention to the other buyers and many of them come in without any information and just buy whatever catches their eye.

I have no doubt that having a range of phones and phone types (keyboard, no keyboard, big screen, small screen, expensive, cheap) will win many converts.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by kartu

It's not that clear who has _actually_ designed the chip. I doubt Apple had know-how in house, to actually do it.

Apple actually bought a chip design company. They don't have the expertise to build it, and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that they also had advice from their manufacturing partner, but I suspect the design was largely theirs.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by kartu

It's not that clear who has _actually_ designed the chip. I doubt Apple had know-how in house, to actually do it.

They do. They bought Intrinsity (a chip design firm) so they can design chips in house.

Samsung doesn't simply have "good quality", it has exclusive screen quality. Most reviews somehow manage not to notice how devastatingly superior AMOLED screens are. Had it been Apple, we'd had detailed reviews focusing on screens and it would become one of the major selling points.

Maybe it's because AMOLED screens (particularly those with pentile) are not devastatingly superior?

http://www.displayblog.com/2010/09/2...etina-display/

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

They do. They bought Intrinsity (a chip design firm) so they can design chips in house.



Maybe it's because AMOLED screens (particularly those with pentile) are not devastatingly superior?

http://www.displayblog.com/2010/09/2...etina-display/

Gotta love the hypocrisy of an article that states that test results don't lie, and then goes on to interpret 'test results' in just one of many ways possible.