Posted on 07/27/2016 8:59:00 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Not all of Samsung's phones are smartphones. In 2014, during the Apple v. Samsung patent infringement trial, the judge required Samsung to reveal its phone product mix. Although they have been reporting all of their phones shipped under the category of "smartphones," under discovery they were forced to reveal that that was FAR from the truth. Instead of what they had been claiming in their propaganda about smartphones shipped, the facts were startlingly different.
For example in 2013, the year they revealed in the court case, only 30% of their phones shipped were smartphones which could be considered to compete against Apple's iPhones of which 100% are smartphones. Another 40% were what is called "feature phones" where the apps are all pre-installed and any other apps are available only from the carriers, not from a wide-open app store. Finally, 30% of Samsung's shipped phones were basic phones that only offered the capability to make phone calls, text, take a photo, and perhaps receive and send email. In other words, only 30% of the phones Samsung sold were smartphones competition in the high-end where Apple sells ALL of its phones.
The following year, Samsung announced, that in light of financial reverses in China, it had reduced its smartphone production to only 19% of its product mix, concentrating instead on outreach to third-world markets where Feature Phones and basic phones were more marketable because of a lack of bandwidth in those areas. . . but they STILL reported all of their phones shipped as Android smartphones!
Samsung's product mix is STILL somewhat the same with smartphones a small fraction in a mix of products. When looked at in that light, Apple is still selling far more smartphones than is Samsung.
So what? (Never mind that no source is provided.) Apple lost big while Samsung gains. No Samsung fan here (never had one, not looking to buy one), but market share is what it is.
The point is that Apple lost a big chunk of market share and celebrates some abstract number, while the competition sold many billions in the same time. McDonald's passed "1 billion served" decades ago...so what?
Numbers are never "abstract," Moitke. Apple knows down to the exact count how many iPhones have been sold. . . and how many are still in use. Android makers haven't a clue how many there are. And IDC's counts are about all those "smartphones" are wild-assed guesses.
No, Android phones total about 1.8 billion . . . and that represents all those NON Smartphones as well. Lots of non-smartphones because a lot of Android makers don't even offer a smartphone, concentrating instead on feature phones and basic phones with Android as the basic OS.
And I did provide a source, you just have to look it up your self. The Apple v. Samsung lawsuit and Judge Lucy Koh's order to Samsung to provide their shipped phone product mix. I just did not provide a link because I've posted it many times before here on FR.
Samsung can call a feature or basic phone a smartphone, but if it doesn't meet the definition of a smartphone it is NOT a smartphone. If it is just a phone that has basic phone functions and does not have the ability to be a computer, it isn't a smartphone at all. It has no functionality to meet the category, but Samsung lumps it in with all others. That is how they get away with their huge numbers of "smartphones" shipped.
It is also a fact that Apple is the ONLY cellular maker that reports actual numbers SOLD to end users, not merely estimated numbers shipped into the inventory channels of the carriers and resellers, many of which will later be returned. Apple's numbers are audited numbers provided in their Financial Reports and are required to be accurate. The other makers, including Samsung, don't even bother to put such numbers in their financial reports. They have to be estimated by IDC and Gartner from watching retail outlets and guesstimates made from sales amounts in revenue reports.
Apple is taking home over 90% of the PROFITS of all the cellular phone makers. Samsung and LG are the only other cellular phone makers that are posting any profits at all. The rest are posting losses. That is not in dispute.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.