Samsung surges past Apple in smartphones, upbeat on Q4

Nice going Apple. Getting PWNed by Samsung’s Galaxy S II line.

Looks like Apple continues to decline

Unless Samsung reports “sales” vs. “shipped”, I call BS. Storing lots of devices in warehouses isn’t sales, it’s called channel-stuffing, which Samsung had admitted to doing earlier this year. There’s also a problem of up at as much as 40% of their Android devices being returned (according to TechCrunch), yet still counted as sales. Proof is in the pudding, we’ll see.

I have Samsung android, Apple 3GS & 4S with iOS5 and HTC with Mango. All 3 designs have their advantages and disadvantages. I am probably more partial to android at the moment due to sms forwarding with 3rd party apps that I could not find in the apple market. The sms forwarding lets me switch phones and not lose important messages. All of them let me call forward, but that does not forward the messages. Apple will make a spectacular comeback if they start really looking at the business side of applications and security.

“Apple will make a spectacular comeback if they start really looking at the business side of applications and security.” Umm, you know they are the largest company in the world and have more money in the bank than the US government?

Apple is definitely more responsible with money than the US government ever will or can be. Apple may rank at the top of cell phone sales and usage, but Samsung is rated at #22 on the top global business 500 while Apple is rated at #111. The US government rankings seem to be falling while Apple’s ranking seems to be rising. Maybe the USA will eventually become the United States of Apple … LoL :)

Fascinating. No CNN coverage of line ups at the stores. No story on the genius of the Samsung CEO that was able to make this happen in such a short time.

Fill, you are aptly insightful. That reminds me of a casino here that claims to have 30% market share based on number of gaming tables in the city. But when you go there, most of the gaming tables are dark, without dealers and punters.

Do we want to portray the notion that wisdom of the Koreans is better than Americans’ and so Samsung is higher tech ?

Unless I am totally ignorant (which is possible), we shipped the equipment, intellectual material to build and support for the factories all over the world instead of building here in the U.S.A.

I believe Google may own most of the intellectual copyrights to the Android system and they are from the U.S.A. as is Apple.

The factories could have been built here with the right incentives and motivation. What does it take to build something like that here? Please answer if you have the answers. Thank you.

Apple continues to manufacture its products under horrendous conditions. (See http://dgeneratefilms.com/china-today/thinking-differently-on-steve-jobs-legacy-the-struggle-of-chinese-labor-reform/and http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/10/27/the-exchange-the-real-cost-of-your-iphon?videoId=223949377&videoChannel=117766,for instance.)

Where, and under what conditions, are Samsung’s products made?

Given the marginal difference in price, quality and functionality that develops as formerly innovative devices become commonplace, mightn’t the source of the devices weigh more heavily on purchasing decisions?

Amazing how it takes a million samsung droids to beat 1 iphone.

http://media.ft.com/cms/33558890-98d4-11e0-bd66-00144feab49a.pdf
Global Company Total assets
rank $million
2011
1 Exxon Mobil 298,983.0
2 PetroChina 251,279.1
3 Apple 75,183.0

The Social Securit Trust Fund alone has over four times the combined assets of the above three companies:
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/assets.html
“The assets of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Trust Funds represent the the accumulation over time of the difference between income and outgo… Assets grew from about $47 billion at the end of December 1986 to about $2,609 billion ($2.6 trillion) by the end of December 2010.”

Reformatted:
http://media.ft.com/cms/33558890-98d4-11e0-bd66-00144feab49a.pdf
Global Company Total assets ($million)
rank
2011
1 Exxon Mobil 298,983.0
2 PetroChina 251,279.1
3 Apple 75,183.0

The Social Security Trust Fund alone has over four times the combined assets of the above three companies:

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/assets.html
“The assets of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Trust Funds represent the accumulation over time of the difference between income and outgo… Assets grew from about $47 billion at the end of December 1986 to about $2,609 billion ($2.6 trillion) by the end of December 2010.”

I think Apple has lost its magic. When I compare a Android phone to the iPhone. You really can’t complain about Android much. Yes, it is good enough for most Non Apple fans.

Ah the Apple boot-licking fanbois. They have an ego trouble and try to compensate that with a scary brand cult : lol. Samsung is a great brand, whatever the device, and one has to gave them the respect due for such a remarkable achievement : reaching the top in just a couple of years trying, no doubt helped in part this year by the Nokia temporary lack of offering and so plunge, following Symbian phase out.

if the cancer hadn’t killed jobs, this would have.

Congratulations Samsung keep going and bury that rotten fruit company and all of its iCrap.

Samsung is just a sad, completely visionless boring company that just rides on the innovation of Google, Apple and others. They take that, spam devices until they see what people will buy, and keep producing that, then wait for next step to be taken by Google/Apple/others, then copy/use that. They have no innovation or passion for human-machine interaction or anything. They have a viable business strategy indeed, but at the end of the day they are just a faceless machine spamming devices others have layed the groundwork for.

LOL it is so funny to read people’s comments. The reason why Apple’s sales was down this year Q3 compared to last year Q3 is because Apple didnt launch new iPhone in Q3 2011 as per their traditional release cycle. So people did not buy iPhone as much compared to last year’s Q3. Also many people held off their iPhone purchase because they were waiting for iPhone 4S. If you guys think Apple is going down, Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S in first 3 days of sales. Just wait for results of Q4 2011 and then judge whether Samsung has really won the war or not.

“Shipments” is WAAAY different than sales. Samsung devices sit on shelves, while Apple’s flies off of them.

Of course Apple dropped in sales during this time period. Everyone was waiting for the new model 4S. Look at the latest numbers and you’ll see Apple is crying all the way to the bank once again. For those looking for less expensive smart phones Samsung is a great place to shop. For those who can afford a bit more, I think we’ll still see Apple leading the pack.

This is impressive that samsung can report such numbers since there phone is banned for stealing apples technology in a lot of markets around the world. but here is one headline you will never hear “samsung sells 4million phones in 12 hours”

As commented earlier, unfortunately the base numbers acting as the source of this article aren’t measuring the same thing. The number of cars built by detroit isnt the same as the number sold. Comparing sales (apple) vs units shipped (samsung) simply doesn’t make sense. While the large shipment numbers certainly suggest a shift in market size there isn’t enough information here to draw any conclusion.

“By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL | Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:37pm EDT”

That explains it all. If samsung wants to shine, they should start reporting number of sales and not number of shipments. They’re known for channel stuff and did so with the galaxy pad. “We shipped 1 million!” Remember that? Then during the earnings call, they revealed that it wasn’t actually sold and it explained why profits were down. Classic.

As alluded to in the article, let’s see next quarter’s numbers after the 4S has been out for a while. Frankly, it’s shocking that it’s taken another manufacturer this long to start beating out a company that only makes one phone, and that phone had been out for over a year. Samsung and Apple are both strong companies, but it seems a little misplaced to declare Samsung beating out Apple as the top smartphone manufacturer while only having a piece of the real numbers (especially considering Samsung’s interesting methods of choice for counting sales). Just a thought.

Apple deserves much credit for helping popularize smartphones — but please, tech journos, do NOT buy into the fantasy that Apple invented either smartphones or touch screen interfaces. Like touchscreen tablet computers, touch screens and smartphones preexisted the Apple products that later became marketing breakthroughs. Give Apple the very large credit due them, to be sure, but keep a grip on the facts.

@Fill: The return rate for Android devices is in the low single digits. If return rates were in fact “approaching 40%” as the Techcrunch report suggests, vendors wouldn’t just be bailing on Android, they would be going out of business. Techcrunch doesn’t mention who their source is; several other blogs have asked for confirmation and got completely different figures. Google “40% of Android devices being returned” if you want to find out more. Also, you can choose to believe that Samsung is channel-stuffing; I believe they are simply making better products than Apple and people have started to notice. Apple’s success was based solely on marketing and loyal customers.

@Jeepgirl

The manufacturing most definitely could be done here. Problem is, it is cheaper to do it elsewhere primarily due to government regulations and taxes, and secondary is the cost of labor. Apple outsources to Foxconn among other outfits to produe their products. The people get paid pennies on the dollar and are worked to the point of where suicide is a major issue for its employees.

What most people fail to understand when they look at this issue, is that we are in a global economy. If Apple did not do this, their prices would be higher and they would have a harder time competing. The US could address this through Tarrifs, however that would violate WTO treaties unless we can prove dumping or unfair practices. Cheap labor, and less regulations in other countries are not unfair practices. It is easy to get mad at the corporations or the government or the unions for the loss of US manufacturing. They have all contributed it to it, however the hard reality Americans must realize is this is a global economy and there will always be someone else that will do it cheaper than we do it, even if we lower regulations, give tax breaks, and do right to work laws nationally.

guys, the stupidity of the human mind is ridiculous to the utmost height. it is a report about a company, not about your personal life! that some people like apple, enjoy it! that some like android, enjoy it! why do i have to impose to someone who loves to work with an apple phone my view on an android phone? it depends on what you look for! guys, apple doesn’t feed you nor does android. fighting and bitching here like if your personal life has been attacked is ridiculous to say the least. i have both phones and enjoy both of them, 4s and gsII. can you believe how much possession of your mind the advertising machinery has taken hold of you all? get a life and get it quickly, so you don’t have to defend a company that wants your money, and life, may i add. live and let live! not with your phone but with your friends and family!

this is before the iPhone 4S was released so….

Considering that Apple just released the iPhone 4S, Samsung didn’t do too shabby. People were waiting for the iPhone 4S and hence still hanging on to their older iPhones. Therefore, lower sales of the iPhone 4 which is perfectly fine for Apple. It’s that many more people waiting to get the iPhone 4S for those who want to stay with the iPhone.

Apple produces 1 phone per year (varying storage capacities but everything else is the same) and I suspect that a lot of people who didn’t want to wait for the 4S ended up getting an android if they were on the fence between android / iPhone.

Apple’s secrecy doesn’t hurt them. If anything, it sets the bar even higher for cell phones because competitors don’t know what Apple will produce so they have to react with something better, if they can do it quickly enough, months later.

@Fill nice try but these are sold.. not shipped.
Apple has fake numbers as well.. as many are orders by stores and not retail sales.

Also there is not 40$ return rate.

Also Apple 4S having issues with battery drain.

Looks like your stock is gonna go down – so quit trying to avoid it – you lost.

@Fill nice try but these are sold.. not shipped.
Apple has fake numbers as well.. as many are orders by stores and not retail sales.

Also there is not 40$ return rate.

Also Apple 4S having issues with battery drain.

Looks like your stock is gonna go down – so quit trying to avoid it – you lost.