Samsung may ship more devices, but there’s no doubt that Apple is winning the war.
That’s the takeaway from Samsung’s latest earnings report, which stated that the Korean smartphone maker’s Q3 operating profits were just $3.8 billion, a 60 percent drop over last year.
And things are even worse in the mobile division, which dropped 73.9 percent year-over-year.
Now compare those numbers to Apple.
In the last quarter, Apple’s operating profits were $11.2 billion, up over 11% from a year ago.
It gets worse for Samsung. Samsung claims that overall sales were down almost 20% from a year ago, and mobile revenues were down by a shocking 34%.
Overall, it’s Samsung’s worst quarter since 2011.
Doesn’t seem like Samsung’s strategy of wantonly ripping off Apple’s designs is working out too well now, does it?
Source: Samsung
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
17 responses to “Q3 earnings show that Apple is just clobbering Samsung”
Its not just Apple, its the other Androids cutting into Samsung territory too.
Agreed. Xiamoi desevers special mention, as they are the third biggest in the world and 1st in the Asian territories.
Another thing that I think made a difference but i guess we won’t see the results till next quarter is, the iphone 6 to me is one of the best looking phones ever made. I am an android guy but I buy apple products also but this new iphone just looks beautiful. I’m thinking of getting it for the wife just so i can use it once in a while.
If this profit comparison disparity trend continues, it could grow even wider this upcoming Holiday season. iPhone 6 and 6+ demand is still not satiated.
Look at Marketshare. Its not Apple. And I would say there is another company ripping off ar the moment. With bigger displays. Smaller and bigger tablets. NFC and and and.
The point of the article is that marketshare means nothing if you’re losing money hand over fist. Apple doesn’t have to saturate the market with their product to be successful.
Consider that there are millions upon millions more Android phones on the market running Google services and yet the average iOS user accounts for four Android users.
Apple is clearly a market leader not because they have the most devices but because they bring in the most cash.
Niiice.
A very wise man once told me that were only 10 reasons to be in business, only 10. The first was to make a profit.
The other nine don’t count.
Windows has market share dominance, but look at the number of Windows manufacturers that have disappeared since 1995: Packard-Bell, E-systems, Compaq, Singer, Olivetti, ATT, Gateway, NEC, Fujitsu, and several more lesser names. Market share means absolutely nothing if you aren’t making a profit. Even if you are making a profit, it doesn’t mean as much as making more profit.
Android phones are essentially free, as the manufacturers are making virtually nothing on Android products. Over time the number of Android manufacturers will decline. The survivor will be the one that can make the lowest cost Android product.
In business that is the last thing that a manufacturer aspires to be.
I think that wise man was you. Excellent synopsis!
Piggybacking on your comment about Windows dominance, it’s amazing how wildly insignificant that actually means.
This was just a quarterly snapshot but a couple years ago CNN Money discussed the indescribable disparity between Microsoft and Apple’s revenue earnings. Microsoft’s harsh reality: the iPhone brought in more revenue than the conglomerate of Microsoft’s offerings.
iPhone = $74 billion
Microsoft = $73 billion
Again, not company versus company but rather a single product category versus an entire company’s portfolio — never mind that the annual iPhone upgrade cycle includes only 2 devices (three this time counting the iPhone 5s and now the 6 and 6 Plus).
No doubt, Windows powers more desktops than any other OS on the planet but it’s clear that its desktop dominance is categorically worthless.
source: http://money.cnn.com/gallery/technology/2012/09/07/apple-iphone/index.html
best quote: “On its own, Apple’s iPhone business would be a Fortune 50 company.”
*Samsung should make a phone with all the gimmicky stuff that actually WORKS THIS TIME*
What year is it? Snarky articles about who makes the most profit on telephones? Is it 2009 still? Isn’t there some innovation out there to report on? You know, AI, autonomous cars, renewables, wearables, robotics, drones. Anything beyond screen size and phone colours?
It’s 2014… and just like last year and the year before, Quarterly earnings are reported on. You ok there, Frankie?
Funny how Samescum never posts sales, just shipments. There’s a warehouse somewhere with a crap load of devices just sitting there. What a joke.
How would they possibly report sales? Would you expect them to get sales reports from every disti and sub disti and retailer and hole-in-the-wall that sells their products all within the first week following the quarter so they can report? If someone is willing to pay for their phones and keep them in a warehouse then why does it matter? You know any returns during the quarter are deducted so it all balances out. Reporting shipments is completely standard for any company that has a channel. Do you think Coke reports sales or shipments?
You’re joking right? I gather you’ve never run a business then. With electronic tracking of every device activation would be a start. You can make up all the excuse you wish, but if Apple can report sales, then so can samescum. They just choose not to do so because they fraudulently claim shipments as sales. They also don’t report on subsides given to retailers on their devices to push their products ahead of anyone else’s. They aren’t one of the mist trustworthy companies on the planet ,thats for sure. I can provide links to their fraudulent and collisional activities over the years, if you want.
I have a Samsung phone and Samsung tablet but have never activated them with anyone but Google. So they would never count mine as sold. It’s no different to a pc or a box of cereal. Once it’s shipped the revenue is recognised. If it’s returned it is deducted off the next quarter. Why would a consumer products company mess around with end user sales?
Samsung’s problem, in my mind, is that their marketing strategy was “buy us because we’re not Apple” and it worked for ages because there are plenty of people who buy into that, for right or wrong. Apple’s strategy is too push their own merits and associate their products with good times, happy people, and sunsets.
Very few, if any, Apple ads point out flaws in their competition – in fact they rarely mention the competition at all – whereas Samsung seems to put 90% of its advertising budget into poking fun at Apple over trivial matters.
After a while that wears pretty thin with the consumer because they soon become tarnished by association.