Apple VS. Samsung
Words: Gentleman's Journal
The Latest headline in the technology consumers market is that Samsung has overtaken Apple in smartphone sales in 2012. Most notably in the last quarter of 2012 where Samsung sold 62 million smartphone handsets to Apple’s 45 million, a substantial difference.
Smartphone components are always a hot topic with the two companies, causing many legal battles, mainly about patents. ‘Semiconductor’ is the new word on heat right now with some revealing data. Samsung is the world’s leading buyer of semiconductors – a main component to smartphone, tablet and computer technology, gobbling up 8% of the total sales with a hefty bill of £15.1 Billion.
Together with Apple they purchased 15% of the worlds semiconductors that were sold in 2012, with Apple’s bill amounting to £13.5 Billion up by 13.6% on 2011. However, Samsung’s 2012 spending was up by 28.9%, double the rise of Apple – on top of their own semiconductor and chip manufacturing. This can to some extent explain the enormous rise in sales for Samsung’s smart devices, just in inventory strength alone. It seems that Samsung is raising the bar on Apple.
Apple’s iPhone 5 sales in the last quarter were in part dampened by some software issues early on, with the mapping system being pretty dire. Samsung benefitted greatly from this mishap, but Apple managed to sell 45 million handsets despite of this hiccup, so their market share isn’t going anywhere. Samsung seems to be maintaing the lead on overall growth too. The company grew by 44% in 2012 compared to Apple’s 31%.
Overall smartphone profits of 2012 for the two companies have not been published yet, but the two giants seem to have hit a level playing field. Who would have thought? Not all good news though, Nokia reduced its spending by 41% in 2012, accounting for only 1.7% of the semiconductor/chip market in 2012. The leftover smart-device market share is noticeably having to spread far and wide for everyone else.
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