Samsung once used to be a milestone achiever in Smartphone industry. Every other individual who wanted to buy a high-tech, latest phone looked towards Samsung. The rise and advent of Apple has left Samsung electronics division somewhat granulated and pulverized. This is due to the reason, that since Apple established itself from 2007, it was considered expensive and a tech industry specific for elite nations only. But, now the industry has submerged as the biggest tech industry around the globe. Samsung, despite of, giving its best is losing the race against its arch-rival Apple.
It is considered that Samsung pushed its best to make 2015 a successful and a grandiose year for the company. The tech giant, apart from, mobiles, tablets and PCs jumped into chip-set manufacturing too. It is worth applauding that the initiative to step into chip-set production was worth a hit. Even, Cupertino giant succumbed and used the Samsung’s latest chips for the recent flagship; iPhone 6S.
However, the sales and business sector has been a frenzy between both the re-known companies. Here, we have given a complete analysis of the year 2015 between both companies and their sales and production. The analysis and the prediction also points out towards the winner for 2016. Let’s see Apple beat Samsung or Samsung is the new tech giant?
QUARTER 1, 2015
Let’s start with the most important month of the Quarter 1 of 2015, March. iPhone was facing a bit of struggle during the start of this year. The sales were not dramatic as they used to be. But by the March it was clearly proven that Cupertino giant had started resurfacing, while, Samsung faced serious struggle.
Apple lurched out Samsung by selling 74.8 million iPhones, leaving behind Samsung’s 73 million Smartphones sales. The sales were pretty good for Samsung which had defeat Apple by a greater margin on 2014. The sales figure between both the companies for previous year were 83.3 million for Samsung, while, Apple’s sales of 50.2 million iPhones felt a joke against Samsung’s whooping sum.
Clearly, Apple showed the world that no company has the power to steal its crown. The Cupertino giant also proved its notion later this year.
QUARTER 2, 2015
Quarter 2 was bit of a best luck for Samsung as its new Smartphones Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge dashed across the market worldwide. As per the report by Strategy Analytics, Samsung managed to bag orders for 83.2 million Smartphone in the first financial quarter of the year 2015. Keep in mind that the above mentioned results for the first quarter are based on the pre-emptive analysis by the end of 2014.
Samsung managed to reach the rate of 24% of the global smartphone market. The Apple excluding its gigantic success of the start of 2015 got only 17.7% market share for nearly two months. Apple’s figure downgraded to 61.2 million units this quarter from the above mentioned 74.8 million.
Different analysts predicted that Samsung has managed to gain its position back when the sales of the new flagships got steeper and steeper and the company even had the shortage of cell phones. The scene which was dominated by Apple was clearly reversed by Samsung in the second quarter.
QUARTER 3, 2015
It seems that Samsung’s happiness is always short-lived. While, on the one hand the South Korean company broke all the records for the second quarter the sales eventually started to decline. Samsung’s revenue rose about $4 billion to $45.6 billion. Apple and its management did their best and turned the stones by applying new strategies.
As per the Strategic Analytics, Samsung shipped more phones in Q3 than 2014. But comparing the increase in demand of Samsung shipments (4.6 million phones) to the increase in Apple shipments (8.7 million) the result is obvious.
This became the major reason that the victory of previous quarter became a defeat for South Korean company. Although, Samsung managed to sell more Smartphones than Apple, the strategic division of the latter submerged the sales and reached audience with more intensity than ever.
QUARTER 4, 2015
If we compare the sales between Apple and Samsung for just U.S., the iPhone manufacturing company is still 10% behind. But if the market share and sales are divided across globally than Apple’s manifestation of ideas in the industry is above all.
As per this quarter’s analysis, the iPhone’s share of the U.S. Smartphone market now checks in at 43.6% while Samsung managed to get 27.6% share of the market. There is a shift in pattern between the sales of both. The report by comscore also noted that year after year Apple is managing to increase its sales nearly by 4% while Samsung was lagging behind and decreasing with equal 4%.
Also, the fact that Samsung is behind is due to the OS of both companies. iOS is considered as the most unique Operating System while Android is a part of every other device. This is the major reason of decreasing sales for Samsung. It is clear that the iPhone is still the top-selling device by a wide margin.
When we compare the iPhone to Android as a whole, the market share gap between the two rivals is only about 9%. And if we notice, the market share gap between iPhone and Android was nearly 20% about 2.5 years ago. The gap is again expected to decrease in the coming months. The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook noted that 30% of all new iPhone purchases now come from Android switchers. The deviants are mostly from Samsung, obviously.
Apart from the Smartphone sales, Apple also launched iPad Pro which was a master in itself. Even, Samsung has no device which can come near the competition. So, that becomes an entirely different story at all. We won’t explain such details because Samsung is still the eye-candy for many and it will hurt their feelings.
The point notable here is that the sales are only the single part of the story. They do not refer to whole success or downfall story. Apple still takes more than 90% of all the profits in the Smartphone market. This is literally huge. You cannot say that Samsung is successful, even if by any chance it occupies the other 10%. Samsung, on the other hand, which is seeing its mobile profits drop because it’s selling an ever-increasing number of low-margin devices.
All in all; the year in review explained that Apple is indubitably the leader of tech and Smartphone industry. It is also proven by the fact that having a device from Cupertino giant is considered as the symbol of luxury and status. The year 2016, while, seems lucky for Samsung is going to be the best year for Apple.
Apple Products released in 2015:
Apple Products expected in 2016:
- Apple iPhone 7
- Apple iPhone 6c and second-gen Apple Watch
Samsung Products released in 2015:
- Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
- Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus
- Samsung Gear S2
- Samsung Galaxy A8
- Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo
- Samsung Galaxy S6
Samsung Products expected in 2016:
- Samsung Galaxy S7
- Samsung Galaxy J series
- Samsung Galaxy A5 and A3 (Europe)
- Samsung Galaxy Note 5 (Europe)
- Samsung Galaxy A9
Reference:
strategyanalytics.com
Gartner.com
Business Insider, UK
comscore.com