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Tim Cook May Not Know Why, But Samsung Is Winning in China
An anonymous reader writes with this interesting snippet about the state of mobile tech in China: "Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook believes that 'over the arc of time' China is a huge opportunity for his pathbreaking company. But time looks to be on the side of rival Samsung Electronics, which has been around far longer and penetrated much deeper into the world's most populous country. Apple this week said its revenue in Greater China, which also includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, slumped 43 per cent to $4.65 billion from the previous quarter. That was also 14 per cent lower from the year-ago quarter. Sales were weighed down by a sharp drop in revenues from Hong Kong. "It's not totally clear why that occurred," Cook said on a conference call with analysts. Neither is it totally clear what Apple's strategy is to deal with Samsung – not to mention a host of smaller, nimbler Chinese challengers."
It's cheaper for what you get (ton more features, and they don't need to be babied like North Americans / other i users).
It has a pressure sensitive stylus for writing asian languages.
It's an asian company. While they might hate Koreans, they hate US people even more.
Stupid company is stupid.
Captcha: Liberty
actually it is, Tim. The Chinese want cheaper phones, and they want phones you can put pirated warez on. Apple doesn't score well in either category.
It's price to some extent. However the fact that Samsung has had a larger presence in China for longer is pretty critical. Tim Cook doesn't seem very smart.
People in China don't waste their money like Americans (e.g. entertainment, pets, cosmetics, etc).
What somewhat surprises me is that Samsung's phones would be holding out against the torrent of slightly-to-substantially cheaper indigenous handsets in China. Sure, the quality can be somewhere between 'uneven' and 'totally fucking dire'; but Samsung's phones are also well known for being plasticky and horribly skinned, so they aren't competing that aggressively on quality.
Am I being too harsh on Samsung? Are the local offerings Just That Dreadful?
Damned if he tells them, damned if he doesn't but it is pretty clear. The product is loosing it's "I gotta have it appeal" as well as the innovative lead as well as, wow that looks futuristic/different ... and they are doing nothing about it, partly because their spiritual leader has left down some laws that are hurting apple.
I live in HK and can pretty much afford any phone. I use Android base phone. More freedom, more options and customisation features and plenty of Android devices to chose from. Most HK people are smart enough to use Android. Hence, Android phones win over here.
There's a shift in China. Some foreign goods/brands remain as status symbols, but some are losing their luster.
The U.S. has been acting like a bigger dick than usual lately. Chinese consumers would rather not buy American (or Japanese) brands when there's a choice. It doesn't matter that the dick's product are made in China.
That's not my opinion, so don't get mad at me. That's what I was told when I was there last month.
Their "strategy" has been to position themselves as a high-end boutique brand. China (and most of the world) wants a solid affordably-priced workhorse. And in Asia Samsung almost certainly has a higher brand recognition than Apple just because they're relatively local (Korean vs. North American) and have been around a lot longer. To win, Apple would need to stop being Apple.
For most Chinese people an iPhone costs too much money.
It seems all the American manfuctors are like Acer trying to outdo each other with who can make each product the cheapest. Dell and HP typically will pick components on who can make it $.005 cheaper than the rest and then wonder why marketshare is failing.
It is an extreme version of Milton Friedman economic theory where consumers will always buy the largest quantity of the cheapest product in a linear fashion.
Apple I would say is the exception and why they took over the market. Samsun however is now outdoing Apple. Where competitors never thought about the case and saved $.005 by using the cheapest plastic from China (not luxury plastic from Mexico as tthe workers demand more than $1 an hour ...), Samsung made polycarbonite compsities.
While the industry in the 2000s focused on cheap green screens and 8 colors, Samsung focused on 1080p and high pixel densisity. Samsung led the way with bigger screens too.
Samsung's marketshare is well deserved and they are even beating Apple today where they have tiny screens and are lacking in features.
http://saveie6.com/
Is Apple on the way down, now that Steve Jobs is dead?
Help! The sky is falling! A companies revenue in one country now only dwarves 62 countries!
They should be worried, shouldn't they? With that sharp decline, their revenue in China is now "only" equal to the yearly income of 870 thousand chinese (or 92 thousand americans).
I will readily admit I'm an Apple fan. But wtf is this article? A piece of whining, like a super-rich complaining that this years champagne doesn't taste as nice as last years'. I don't think the author has a grasp for the numbers he posted.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Just sue everyone in the orient for using the wrong phone? Or did they try that already I forget?
Make as good a product as they can, and let profit follow.
Marketshare is not a concern to Apple.
Also, unless you have shut yourself off from the internet, you cannot help but see ENDLESS waves of rumors about some kind of cheaper Apple phone on the way, which would pretty obviously be another strategy to get more customers in China.
It's funny how everyone frames it as a battle against Samsung, when over time Samsung is but one of many players in China that influence how Apple sells products.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
China / HK market asks for the latest toys, and they feel that bigger is better : they need to compensate.
When I went to HK in february, I was surprised to keep seeing people with samsung note 2 or something like that.
Apple has only one phone, called the same, with not much variation between one model and the model+1.
seriously, read the book "poorly made in china" for example. everyone agrees that china is on the rise, becoming the new "superpower". but all what they can do is to copy and manufactur as cheap as possible. without innovators from other countries they wouldnt have any product there. samsung is just cheaper, in price and quality, thats the reason.
If you got into an Apple store, its rows of the same generation of products. If you have not bought into the cult or are on the upgrade cycle, its a hard sell to convert a new user at the price point with the same old OS/look/feel/range.
Samsung has products ranging from:
low cost glossy colour clamshell phones with the basic functionality a user needs at the local price point.
mid range tablet like products
larger size tablets
Buying Samsung feels good at any price and has a new feel about it.
Now you also have the NSA "inside" branding.
Apple cannot go too cheap, no can it clutter up its product lines again, some may recall the Performa years.
Better, longer local ads? Or learn from a UK drugmaker on how to "grow sales volume" with a nice bump to 'prices" in China?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Per capita nominal[1] GDP (source: Wikipedia)
- USA: US$49,922
- China: US$6,075
Cost of unlocked 16GB iPhone 5 (source: Apple store)
- USA: US$649
- China: RMB 5288 (US$863)
The average US citizen earns more than 8 times the average Chinese citizen. Would you buy a smartphone if it cost a few months of your post-tax income? I can almost buy a (cheap) new car for a few months (above average, post-tax) salary. And while I suspect the Samsung S4 is similarly expensive, I'd quite happily settle for a slower, cheaper variant (feature-phone, shock horror) for something that'll be obsoleted in 1-2 years.
[1] - PPP GDP is appropriate for food, but nominal is more appropriate for smartphones, technology and anything that can be traded internationally.
There are two reasons why people I know (myself included) have not bought Apple products.
1. Give us a bigger screen. My wife loves her iPhone and is looking at upgrading to whatever comes next, but after using my Galaxy S3 she would rather lose her familiarity with iOS (and all the apps she has paid for) to get a screen she can actually read.
2. Don't charge the $200 Apple premium. After being dicked around by Telcos, more and more people are buying their phones outright. It's not until you do this, that you suddenly see that an Apple iPhone is over $200 more expensive for a product (like the Galaxy S4, or the HTC One) which is better specced, but far cheaper.
People buying outright is also the same reason people aren't upgrading as much any more. You used to get a new phone every 2 years for free on some contracts, but with the premium commonly being charged people are happy to hold on for three/four years - or until their phone goes bang.
Not putting iOS 7 onto 3GS models is a smart move - it stops all those laggards from upgrading their OS, and forces them to start upgrading their hardware.
actually it is, Tim. The Chinese want cheaper phones
Ironically so do Americans it is why Apple are increasingly selling more old products like the 4 and 4S. They also don't want cheaper phones..they may want better value phones. The iphone is a cheap phone its why Apple charge a large mark-up.
With their huge mark-ups for similar products to everyone else, how the hell can Apple compete, other than selling to fanbois?
There's not so many homos in China.
App Store is loaded with great app.. that costs money.
In Hong Kong, price is the #1 concern. You can taut all the ease of use and convenience. But the fact is if a Hong Konger can solve a math equation and get a song for free, he would. Copyright is really more like a government slogan then a actual enforced concept. Android, unlike IOS, allow painless load up of bootlegged avi and mp3s. Pirating content is a national sport here in Hong Kong. This is the place where you can hear parent scorning the kid over the dim sum brunch for not downloading the latest CD fast enough.
If I can get a 7" screen for the price of 5", why not? Especially when the latest shiny phone is not an apple. Also everybody carry a bag in Hong Kong. A few more oz doesn't make a difference when I am carrying a bottle of water, umbrella, extra TP (yes restaurants do NOT provide napkin), another phone (for mainland) and battery charger.
And unlike Samsung, Apple's media campaign in HK is almost non-existence.
Make as good a product as they can, and let profit follow.
Ironically Samsung now make more profits while Apples continue to shrink. The bottom line is the product is not that good. the iPhone5 has a 1.3 GHz dual core, 1GB of Memory, an 8MP and 1.2MP Camera, 640 × 1,136 pixels at 326 ppi. That compares badly to even mid-range phones let alone manufacturers flagship product. They need a new strategy, not marketing lingo.
People deride copying as a dirty word.
Copying is how we humans learn, what you just said is what people used to say of Japanese industry in the 60s.
China has risen from a rural backwards society in the 70s to a society that can manufacture pretty much any high tech stuff you care to mention.
But if sprouting that quasi racist nonsense gives you some comfort all the power to you.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Emmmm....let me try....I can only guess, but...because your business model has no absolutely chance of winning in China? :)
Ohhh, you afraid to said that loud. Ok, I will try again...BECAUSE YOUR BUSINESS MODEL HAS NO NO WAY TO WIN IN CHINA. How about that? :)
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Chinese people do not want to be involved in direct confrontation. Samsung manufacture its products in Korea, while every bit of Apple technology (except Apple's logo) was given to Chinese companies. Now nearly evetything Apple is manaufacturing is made in China. Why should they pay so much for the stupid logo? They got the technology in chinese way "1 component at a time". In the past Chinese were destroying its enemies like bugs destroy trees (one leaf at a time) so one day the tree eaten by bugs will collapse without any warning. Now you wounder why North America and Europe is failing!
...ok not America :)...but that is the point. Apples market share is the lowest in years sitting at 13% http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24239313 To focus on a market(admittedly a massive market) they always did bad is ridiculous. Russia's three major mobile phone operators have halted iPhone sales recently.
Even if they offered a cheaper iPhone, they still wouldn't be able to install pirated software on it.
Seriously http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/ios-apps-hijack-twitter-accounts-post-false-confessions-of-piracy/ this is my favourite post of a Developer attacking its customer by hijacking Twitter accounts, and posting false “confessions” of piracy.
They simply do not want the iPhone, and piracy is not the reason. Although not being in control of your hardware will definitely have an effect in every market.
The irony is, Samsung phones aren't marketed as "special" as iPhones, and that's why the Samsung phones are winning.
To elaborate:
Any relatively affluent Chinese national who's had the privilege of making a trip to the states and is returning to the motherland will most likely have a top-of-the-line Samsonite suitcase full of Coach purses and brand new unlocked apple iPhone 5's (and maybe a couple of iPads), but how many Samsung products will they be bringing? Likely none.
The reason for this is that when quality is an issue, the Chinese have this adamant belief that anything created in China that is exported to be sold to Americans is, without question, of higher quality than the same item were it sold to Chinese consumers. This includes the same iPhone, made in the same factory, by the same people, the "better" one being shipped overseas.
That's why in the mainland, the spoiled middle-class children (starting at around middle school) with re-imported U.S. iPhones will actually look down on those who are using a "domestic" iPhone.
The fact that Samsung has been a major player in Chinese appliances still helps to set it apart from domestic (to China) brands such as Huawei in terms of overall quality, but because Samsung phones are marketed as largely being a different alternative to Apple phones (in terms of features, screen size, etc.), there's less of a need to re-import that je ne sais quoi from the U.S.
But Apple? Those phones are claiming to be the epitome of fit-and-finish, and that's just shooting themselves in the foot in this case.
Its not just the price - Samsung understands the Asian market and makes the product that the market wants, Apple simply doesn't.
I have a Chinese (LAVA-branded) Android tablet - it was a freebie from a vendor because I order so much from him (several years we were their largest account). He asked me for feedback on it after I had it for a few weeks. I felt bad but had not much good to say about it. It came with the Netflix preloaded (in their official firmware) and the Netflix app would not load movies. No update was available from Netflix at the time so I contacted lavatech. Their response was that they do not support it, that I should delete the app. WTF? Also, the manual clearly stated that the tablet charges via the mini-USB port. It doesn't. It only charges via the DC adapter port, and it uses a near impossible-to-find-size barrel connector.Lava Tech is uninterested in supporting their core products. Their response if something doesn't work according to their documentation, is to simply not use that feature, or they insist I'm doing it wrong (how can you plug in a mini-USB cable incorrectly?!).
I have a GS1000 dashcam (orange menu, a genuine GS1000 not a clone) - another cheap Chinese product. It has all the features I wanted but I ran into a bug. They quickly turned around and gave me a firmware update that fixed the problem I reported but introduced another problem. I emailed them again and they sent me another update (which I still have yet to test because I have been in the middle of moving to New Hampshire). Excellent customer service for a cheap product.
Support from Chinese companies ranges from completely sucktastic to fantastic. Unfortunately the former is far more common. I think the way Samsung and Apple actually stand behind their products, both will take the Chinese market by storm. I wouldn't buy a smartphone from a Chinese company because there is too much risk that the most basic features won't work (like, not being able to make phone calls) and the company will just say "don't use that feature then."
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Almost everyone I asked said that the iPhone screen was too small.
They also said⦠"Why is the iPhone so expensive when it has such a small screen?"
You can buy an Android phone with a gorgeous 5.7" display for half the cost of the iPhone in China. That was the biggest screen I found and it looked more vibrant than the screen on my iPhone 5.
If Apple wants to keep selling phones in China, they need bigger screens. Therefore, you can expect there will be a big screen iPhone. The Chinese market is too big for them to ignore. There's lots of competition now and Chinese consumers have zero brand loyalty.
I've lived in China for the past nine years, and while I'm no expert, I can maybe shed a little light on the actual situation here. While most affluent Chinese own iProducts, and in particular have a bias iPhones, that's not where the market is going. Apple products are more expensive, and Apple has always had supply chain issues in China; most people prefer to buy from a vendor who goes through Hong Kong since you avoid taxes that way. I think the bigger issue is being locked in to Apple's systems. Look at companies like xiaomi.com, they are basically trying to be an Apple clone. Android allows you do to that. This company started building custom roms, then started building phones, and now they have a huge loyal user base. While a lot of people still go for iProducts for the wow appeal, overall there are more fresh things going on on Android, and that's enough to attract customers.
Apple is ok as long as any Model T you want is black. You DON'T want choice when you're an Apple customer. Choice is B-A-D.
Unfortunately Nature and most intelligent customers think choice is good. Choice in terms of models, in terms of colors, in terms of price, in terms of features etc... And that's why Samsung is kicking Apple's ass. Look no further than this.
I had a choice some years ago between buying an Iphone and a Samsung S3. I went with the S3 although it was more costly. Why ? Because of its featureset, because it interoperates without problem with any desktop os. Because 1 second and I can change the battery without going to some approved maintenance centre. Because it interoperates without problems with any other android smartphone. I don't have to pass through some Apple approved cloud to transfer files from my smartphone to my desktop/laptop or some other smartphone. I can install apps from google's playstore, amazon store or samsung's store. I can install apps outside of any appstore. And all this without jailbreaking my device. Do I care if the smartphone is plastic ? No, it's a tool. Nothing more nothing less. I use it for work every day and I couldn't care less it was plastic. Smartphones are not status symbols, they are tools. You want a status symbol ? Buy yourself some Girard Perregaux, ot Philippe Patek watch. Or some jewelery.
Apple outsourced all their development and manufacturing to China. Now they struggle to understand the wave of Chinese competitors that suddenly arrived? Interesting.
Looking at the slashdot comments it seems like nobody really knows why either... ;)
> What somewhat surprises me is that Samsung's phones would be holding out
> against the torrent of slightly-to-substantially cheaper indigenous handsets in China.
> Sure, the quality can be somewhere between 'uneven' and 'totally fucking dire';
Thanks to short-sighted MBAs who've off-shored manufacturing to Asia, "quality American products" are manufactured at the same factories, by the same workers, that manufacture "cheap foreign junk". Check out Foxconn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn on Google. Foxconn manufactures the iPad, iPhone, and iPod.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
Here's a big hint for Tim: on iOS, you can't write a custom keyboard. On Android you can. This is a really big deal in Hong Kong, because iOS has no support for Cantonese-based Chinese input. The best you can do is a kludgy app where you have to copy and paste the result (see https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/canton-guang-dong-pin-yin/id385519764?mt=8).
Therefore, the Cantonese user is hamstrung by Apple's lack of support for the Cantonese-speaking market, together with their locked-down approach which prevents third party developers from filling the hole.
Compare this with the situation on Android, where there are at least five Cantonese-based keyboard input methods, together with Cantonese voice recognition. Why is it surprising if Hong Kongers find iOS seriously deficient?
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
Apple managed to sell some stuff in China despite not having support for the languages and no effort in distribution. Meanwhile Samsung, and even Nokia in it's death throes, have made some effort at selling things in China, and guess what, they are doing better than Apple in that market. It's not hard to work out why.
because people have realised what you do and dont get buying apple and they have stopped buying. basicly they dont believe the hype, bull.... etc that apple rely on for sales. apple, last years tech at next years prices, the world has voted with its wallet and spent elsewhere, even in usa apple are failing, stock price down 50%, sales down as well, all as predicted. i wouldvnt put my money in samsung either, they have no better understanding of the markets than apple do a d the same situation we are discussing here will happen to samsung very soon. they also will crash back to what they should be, a non-dominant phone maker, possibly even quicker than apple, no-one thinks samsung devices "cool".
Some people like smaller phones, some like larger ones. I understand that too much choice can get confusing to people, but most people want SOME choice. Apple has had a "You will do this our way," idea for a long time. Now that works when what you have is what people want, but not so much if people decide they want something else.
Also in terms of China, Apple is at a disadvantage compared to America because it doesn't have the status symbol thing going on there. In the US it is very fashionable to have and be seen with an Apple product (though it is waining here). It started with the iPod and has continued for quite some time. It was a status symbol to have an iPod, iPhone, etc. Not so in China. It just doesn't have that same status. So people evaluate it more on its features (and cost) and how much they like those.
Apple may have to accept that having "an" iPhone isn't going to cut it as much, they may need to have a couple options for people to choose from.
Android is far better suited to the chinese market. Because piracy is far simpler on it....
Chinese hate walled gardens (oh the irony!)
That's because the whole concept of buying software is alien, it takes some brainwashing to get. Not paying for a good with zero marginal cost is pretty natural.
In my experience iphones sold extremely well where they had the iPod bonus (that is, a non-negligible fraction of the population being on itunes).
In china Apple never managed tyo catch the same stronghold.
May also have to do with Apple fucking up on simple things in non-trivial (i.e. chinese) 2.5g network situations (when i traveled to China with my wife, her iphone3gs choked up on the chinese variant of GSM extension in a way that calls were impossible (neither my Nokia phones nor my galazy tab had that problem).
Or with the fucking provider-binding where apple plays police.
Mod parent up.
China isn't as caught up in the phone as being part of fashion, so price/features wins and in this department, Apple is way way behind Samsung.
When Apple first became available in China, the "status" drove sales. But, that market was quickly saturated. The Chinese market typically demands several things of a smartphone: microSD support and swappable batteries. Phones without those abilities are simply not as well received. Some manufacturers make special products just for the Chinese market, like HTC does with their One model. In the US and Europe, the HTC One is completely sealed, no access to battery, no microSD slot. But in China, the HTC One has at least the microSD because that market demands it. In China, they put a lot of video onto microSD to play on their devices, whether phone or tablet. The Apple system requires those videos to be converted on a host computer before they will play on the device. Android typically does not require any conversion, it plays many more formats than Apple. The microSD can be loaded up with movies and tv shows to watch on the commutes to/from work and school. Apple doesn't seem to understand the Chinese market. They had the initial status-driven people, but those don't offer continued sales/growth.
Want to know why Chinese people are buying Android phones instead of iPhones? Ask them. Have people around here never heard of a poll?
I had a iPhone 4 which was decent, and thought that it did everything I would ever want. Then I updated the iOS and switched providers, at which point I could not unlock it so I had to get a new device, and chose the S4 over the iPhone 5 which has an outdated OS interface, charges an arm and a leg for memory upgrade (64 GB is not worth 300$ EVER), has no SD card slot, doesn't allow for the battery to be flipped so that I don't have to worry about running out of battery and no charger available nearby, has only "family friendly" apps, has an outdated camera, a narrow awkward screen, doesn't allow me to copy files over the network, text input on the keyboard has to be done by continuously clicking, requires iTunes, and I can't play videos on it unless I get them from apple or use some bloated annoying software on my PC to convert for it.
Product cycle time.
This is why you bozos shouldn't let emotion and stupid stories dictate your investments. You will get taken to the cleaners by anyone who actually bothers to read filings by both companies.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/27/samsung-has-not-dethroned-apple-in-mobile-profits
And I think a lot of you are confused by that. Samsung is just selling hardware. Apple is selling hardware AND creating an ongoing income stream from its ecosystem. Apple focuses on and accomplishes far higher customer retention numbers to sustain a longer purchasing cycle by consumers as the market matures. And it shows in the margins and the premium that Apple is STILL able to command for its products (despite what the emotionally-driven people on slashdot think).
From a business perspective, Apple is beating the holy crap out of its rivals and as the market matures pure hardware makers such as Samsung are being forced into more defensive positions. It's obvious just looking at the relative margin numbers.
Statistics can be very misleading, particularly the idiotic 'global market share' statistics the media seems to love to quote. The simple fact of the matter is that Apple is not diving head-first into lower economic zones. It's dipping its feet in from the higher zones but from Apple's perspective there's just no point trying to run after customers who don't won't provide any meaningful ongoing income to either Apple or Apple Developers. This also supports Apple's premium pricing model because, to be frank, the consumers of its products tend to be the same consumers who spend significant amounts of money just on telco. In the U.S. and other economically mature zones, Apple's premium is barely 1 month's phone bill. Not enough of a reason for those people to switch to a cheaper device.
China is certainly different in this regard, but Apple's business model is still generating enormous revenue and profits so to say that they are somehow 'losing' in China is losing sight of the bigger picture. Apple will tune its model but they will always sell at a premium to other devices. There's no reason for them not to.
-Matt
My wife is from Hong Kong, and loves the Samsung phones. Not a week goes past without her complaining about how much she hates Apple with its small screen, lack of features, sub-par specifications and "rip off" price. She will even go so far as to occasionally (much to my own embarrassment) openly mock people with iPhones in public!
I hate Apple products for completely different reasons - I won't use their products due to the proprietary nature of the devices, and still rock my N900 to this day.
So many apple haters in tech blogs... Come on they make decent products that appeal to the masses. Will other companies make products that are more geared to the hacker community? Yup. But I'm glad my mom has an iPhone.
The biggest problem for Apple in China is that even though the hardware is potentially capable of supporting it now, the iPhone 4S and 5 does NOT support the unique TD-SCDMA digital cellular network used by China Mobile for its 750 million customers.
Hopefully, when the new iPhone models (5S and the new 5C lower cost model) arrive this fall, it will enable TD-SCDMA support, and that will allow China Mobile to officially support the iPhone so China Mobile customers can buy them at the Apple Store or China Mobile authorized retailers.
Remember when everyone was happy to give Bush the finger in 2008 and say that we're headed for an improvement in foreign relations because of Obama's election.
Different guy, same shit.
iPhone IS too small compared to the new Samsung phones.
What I would like to see is Apple double the storage &
add cell phone electronics into the iPad mini.
The iPad mini makes a great Big Phone,
and with 256GB of storage, and updated camera,
the iPad Mini phone would be great.
Otherwise I'm buying the next Note 3.
I think its history repeating itself, remember apple and Microsoft, apple won that battle in well over a decade because they gave up the rights to the hardware.
I don't think is a matter of apple and sumsung, but apple and droid this time around. where clearly apple has their hands full already.
just my opinion regards