A new study from comScore shows that, during the first quarter, Apple is the number one manufacturer in the US, with a 39% share. Samsung is second, with a 27% share.
Check out this video from the launch of Galaxy S4 in India:
An embarrassing display in the land of Bollywood. One of the comments on YouTube suggests that the singer is the reincarnation of Steve Jobs bent on sabotaging Samsung.
(via All Things D)
Harry McCracken reviews the current numbers for iOS and Android in some detail in order to determine which is “winning.” He concludes that it depends on your definition of “winning.” More Android devices are sold worldwide that iOS devices. But Apple’s iOS earns more profits that all Android devices combined. He correctly notes that this is very different from the historic PC markets where profits followed volume.
In my view, from a business perspective, profits are more important than unit sales.
comScore’s latest US survey via All Things D:
For the three-month period ended in February, the iPhone was the most popular smartphone in the U.S., with a 38.9 percent market share — up 3.9 percentage points from the November quarter. And with a 38.9 percent share, iOS was the second-most-popular smartphone platform, also up 3.9 percentage points from the preceding period.
Here are the numbers based on platform (i.e., operating system):
And here are the numbers based on manufacturer:
This numbers certainly do not show that Apple is a troubled smartphone manufacturer, at least in the US.
Here are the questions on everyone’s lips: Who’s right? And where does it go from here?
And here are the answers: I don’t know. You don’t know. Nobody on CNBC knows. And if they try to tell you they do know, run for the hills with your hand on your wallet.
What we can say, however, is that the sentiment and stock action related to Apple offer a perfect study in how conjecture and misunderstanding can trump actual knowledge when it comes to evaluating a company. When the company is as much the focus of worldwide attention and as uncommunicative about its own plans as Apple, the effect is even sharper.
The peculiar stock market action and the vacuum in information have combined to generate a wave of news articles and market reports suggesting that Apple has lost its zip and is running as fast as it can just to keep up with Samsung, the maker of its own line of popular smartphones. Yet the notion that Apple is “ceding its crown” (Reuters’ words) in smartphones to Samsung or anyone else, however, is wrong or, at the very least, hopelessly premature.
– Michael Hiltzik, writing the LA Times. The full article is worth a careful read.
Disclosure: I am long AAPL.
(via All Things D)
There has been a ton of hype and build-up to this device, and ultimately, it left us feeling cold. The S IV feels uninspired. There are small spec bumps from the previous generation and there’s a ton of software which will largely sit unused. There’s just no wow-factor here.
I had the HTC One with me during my hands on time, and the difference is like night and day. For starters, the One is noticeably faster in every context. When flicking between screens, opening apps, and taking photos there was clear lag on the Galaxy S IV, whereas everything was almost instantaneous on the One. To be fair, this wasn’t the final production version of the S IV, and who knows which processor was in the model I had. There’s a chance it’ll be faster at launch.
But even purely from a design perspective, the One absolutely crushes the S IV. When you pick up the One, you feel like you’re holding something amazing, both in the build and the screen. When you pick up the S IV, you feel like you’re holding an S III with a few extra bells and whistles.
HTC President Jason MacKenzie, criticizing the Samsung launch event:
I went from laughing to actually feeling embarrassed at some of the acting. Watching the presentation, it looks like they invested a lot in marketing instead of innovation.
The casing of the Galaxy S 4 feels sturdier than previous handsets we’ve seen from Samsung, but it still has a very plastic feel to it. The casing has an interesting textured-look to it, which almost gives off a denim look. It’s nothing terribly special, but it’s still a nice touch. Just like you’d expect, the GS4 is still a fingerprint magnet, but it still feels pretty nice in the hand.
While many of the features showcased tonight were already rumored for quite some time, the Galaxy S 4 will still undoubtedly kick some serious ass. It has powerful innards and is more sleek than ever. That said, the competition didn’t wait around for Samsung to have all the glory, and most took a preemptive strike earlier in the year. The HTC One, Optimus G Pro, and Sony Xperia Z are also mighty powerful handsets, and bring a level of competition that Samsung hasn’t seen in the Android world before.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 was just announced. While feature rich, it has me less than impressed. Most of the new upgrades to the phone are interesting, but not enough to make the switch from the iPhone 5. . . . The S4 is more of generational upgrade than an entirely new phone.
The Galaxy S4 appears to be largely an incremental update to the S3 including a slightly larger screen (4% larger on diagonal), better camera and processor, and updated software, but largely the same body style and casing. We believe some of the software features are unique, including the tilt to scroll, video pausing based on facial recognition, and hand gesture based interactions, but view these software improvements as minor compared with what Siri was to the iPhone 4S or even Google Now to Android.
Brian White, Topeka Capital Markets, after looking at the Galaxy S IV:
We are amazed by how analysts and the media have turned on Apple during the recent stock downdrafts with statements that Samsung is ‘out-innovating’ Apple. One would believe that Samsung is crushing Apple in the mobile phone market. We believe this is complete nonsense.
Disclosure: I am long AAPL.
… wait for it…
… Sir Robin Jacob handled the Samsung v. Apple case that made headline news around the world because it appeared that Apple filed frivolous lawsuits (which is not true). In a ruling on Apple’s first attempt to comply with the publicity order, Sir Robin Jacob even noted a “lack of integrity”.
For someone so concerned with “integrity” it is utterly unusual to issue a high-profile and extreme ruling in favor of a particular party (Samsung in this case) only to be hired as an expert by that same party in another dispute. But that’s what has happened here, and I wonder how certain people in Cupertino feel about it. Yesterday Samsung’s counsel in the ITC investigation of Ericsson’s complaint submitted the protective order subscriptions (covenants to comply with the ITC’s strict confidentiality rules) of nine “experts [...] working on behalf of Respondents Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Samsung Electronics America, Inc., and Samsung Telecommunications America LLC”. Lo and behold, Sir Robin Jacob is one of them.
Samsung has sued Apple over Apple’s VoiceOver feature, while makes Apple devices compatible for the blind. It is a low blow against accessibility for all. For now, the suit, filed in Germany, has been stayed by the court.
Groups supporting the blind should publicize the action with a full-on attack on Samsung.
According to Strategy Analytics, for the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple sold the number 1 smartphone (iPhone 5) and the number 2 smartphone (iPhone 4S) worldwide. That put both of those phones above the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Amazing.
Disclosure: I am long AAPL.
The New York Times published a profile of Samsung, its mobile device business and its competition with Apple this morning. It is worth a read, but you must then check out this translation of the article by Jim Dalrymple.
I think Dalrymple has it exactly right.
Apple has managed to nab three of the top 5 spots for the top-selling mobile phones in the U.S. during Q4 2012 according to the NPD Group, with the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 ranking first, third and fourth, respectively. Apple also retained the crown for best-selling overall smartphone maker, accounting for 39 percent of smartphone sales in Q4 2012, compared to Samsung’s 30 percent.
iPhone 4 sales rose 79 percent compared to Q3 2012, and iPhone 4S sales grew 43 percent sequentially, while the iPhone 5 accounted for 43 percent of all iPhone sales in Q4 2012, which is roughly in line with the numbers we’re seeing out of carrier data as well. It also made up nearly two-thirds of all smartphone sales on post-paid plans with a value over $200, NPD says. Samsung made considerable gains on the year, going up to 30 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales in Q4 2012 from 21 percent in the year ago quarter, but the gains were mostly at the expense of other Android OEMs, including HTC, while Apple’s overall share remained constant.
You decide.
Update: Here is the official Samsung ad that will run during the Superbowl. Clearly no Apple attack in this one.
Check out this thoughtful take describing what could be the real threat that Samsung poses to Apple. It is worth a careful read.
A reaction from John Gruber is here.
And an entirely alternate view is available here.
Apple lost a patent dispute with Samsung in the UK this week and the judge ordered Apple to post an apology. The result, posted on Apple’s website, is classic Apple. While Apple acknowledges the loss, it takes the opportunity to get in some real digs at Samsung.
Excerpt:
In the ruling, the judge made several important points comparing the designs of the Apple and Samsung products:
“The extreme simplicity of the Apple design is striking. Overall it has undecorated flat surfaces with a plate of glass on the front all the way out to a very thin rim and a blank back. There is a crisp edge around the rim and a combination of curves, both at the corners and the sides. The design looks like an object the informed user would want to pick up and hold. It is an understated, smooth and simple product. It is a cool design.”
“The informed user’s overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following. From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool.”
Update: It turns out that the UK judge was none too happy about Apple’s approach.