I think Apple fans watching the brawl between Cupertino and Samsung can sometimes just be confounded by what is going on. Why is Samsung taking a risk of alienating its biggest manufacturing customer just to release some crummy iPhone knockoffs? Madness, right?
Wrong. While not exactly ethical, Samsung is playing it smart: the Korean electronics giant knows that the potential margins on selling smartphones dwarf the margins on any parts it sells Apple. But the proof is in the pudding, so check this out: Samsung actually shipped more smartphones last quarter than Apple did.
The report comes via the Wall Street Journal, who cite a source saying that Samsung shpped 20 million smartphones in the quarter ending on September 30th, compared to Apple’s “disappointing” 17.1 million.
As far as numbers are concerned, then, Samsung’s strategy of aping the iPhone and iPad and shipping multiple iterations of each device every generation is paying off… just barely. Of course, Apple sold less iPhones than it normally would this quarter, and it’s worth noting that Samsung’s shipping many different smartphones compared to Apple’s two: the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4. Still, these are the sorts of numbers Samsung was dreaming of when they first decided to risk alienating Apple with the first Galaxy smartphone.
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.
18 responses to “Samsung Outsold The iPhone Last Quarter, But No One Panic”
Its not official. I could tel the wsj that apple shipped 60 billion iphones. Woohoo. And it doesn’t matter how many have shipped, it matters how many have sold. Fail. And wtf apple sold the iphone 3gs and 4, not 3g… come on man
This was right before the launch of the 4s, right? If so I’m pretty sure that the fact that people where holding up in buying an iPhone 4 to get the new one, play a big role in the numbers of iPhone 4 sold at the end of the quarter.
Do people really go out to the store and specifically ask for a Samsung phone? No… It’s because Samsung has been hitting the market with nicely spec’d Androids that that’s what sales people will push. All it will take is another manufacturer to come out with the next best Android, and people will buy that instead of Samsung.
Apple on the other hand has brand loyalty that is the envy of the corporate world.
how is Samsung outsold iPhone when all Samsung claimed to have shipped 20 million as opposed to Apple that sold 17 million. All we know Samsung may shipped 20 million and sold 10 million.
The last month/quarter in the life of the iPhone 4 as the primary leading Apple phone has a substantial dip in sales because – DUH! – people are holding out for the next phone. Let’s wait and see how Q4 2011 shapes up.
How many of the Samsung phones are free, heavily discounted, or available on carriers that don’t support or carry the iPhone?
How many of them are bought by people who are into technology and know what they are getting, and how many are just being put into hands of people who don’t know anything about technology by sales people who need to get rid of their stock before it loses value?
I know a person that works at a Verizon store and one at an AT&T store. In general, they never have to find space to stock iPhones/iPads while both have HUGE stock areas designated for MOTO and Samsung. Both have also commented on what seem to be daily deliveries of Apple product and that they have no idea where all the Samsung/MOTO stuff is coming from. Both are Android people and deduce the phenomena as a positive for Androids ‘domonance’ in the market place.
“Shipped” vs. “Sold”, why do industry watchers have such trouble differentiating these two non-synonymous words? Unless Samsung phones are sold out, they didn’t sell 20 million.
yummy bait