Apple Vs Samsung
Apple sold 220 million iPhones in the time it took Samsung to sell 100 million Galaxy S phones. Samsung Electronics said that global sales of its Galaxy S smartphones surpassed 100 million units since the first model in the series was released less than three years ago, in June 2010. That’s 100 million units in about 31 months. That isn’t bad, considering that Apple’s iPhone took much longer for sales to hit the 100-million mark, which happened in March 2011, three-and-a-half years after the introduction of the smartphone in September 2007.
But it’s not much use talking about different eras – in the world of smartphones, every quarter is a different decade. So, let’s look at the same period June 2010 until December 2012. Samsung says it’s sold a 100 million Galaxy S series smartphones in that time. Apple iPhone sales, on the other hand, reached a record 219.84 million in the same period (between Q3 2010 and Q4 2012). Yes, that’s more than double the devices sold during the same period. Period.
According to a Samsung statement, the original Galaxy S phone sold 25 million units, while the Galaxy S II, launched in April 2011, racked up sales of more than 40 million in almost a year, and the S III has reached the same volume in the eight months since coming on the market in May 2012. Apple’s best quarterly sales for the iPhone came in Q1 2012, when the Cupertino-based tech giant sold more than 37 million units of the iPhone 4S, followed by the next quarter when sales topped 35 million. Q3 2012 sales dipped to just over 26 million, with eager fans choosing to wait for the rumored iPhone 5. This latest device, launched in September 2012, has yet to see sales spike as the last quarter of 2012 saw iPhone sales almost stagnate at 26.91 million units, although some analysts put that down to supply issues, with the handset becoming available in over 100 countries only in December 2012.
Samsung says that 2012 was a watershed year for it, a year that saw it take a giant bite out of Apple as it carved out a dominant position in the global mobile computing market. Still, the iPhone remains a dominant device in the smartphones market, with more than 271 million units sold since its launch in Q3 2007. Nevertheless, Samsung saw its share of the lucrative smartphone market surge to 31.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012, up from just 3.3 percent in late 2009. It is now ranked as the leader – above Apple – as it extended its lead over the Cupertino tech firm as the top maker of smartphones worldwide, which gave Samsung 28 percent of the market in 2012, up from 20 percent the previous year. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) share rose to 20 percent in 2012 from 19 percent.
Samsung is ranked ahead of Apple in the smartphones sweepstakes because the South Korean giant doesn’t bank on just one smartphone model, and follows a chaingun approach to launching new devices, unlike Apple, which has but one smartphone (the iPhone, of course) and launches one upgrade a year, in addition to the mini avatar it launched last year.
Samsung maintains its leadership position in the worldwide smartphone market with its growth fueled in large part by its broad, deep, and refreshed Android portfolio. In addition to its flagship model Galaxy S III, the company announced multiple mid-range and mass-market models, including a new Windows Phone, in Q3 2012.
