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Samsung Beat Apple In Smartphone Shipments, Profit Surges To 2-Year High (thehindu.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Earlier reports speculated this to be true, but now it's official: Samsung has beat Apple in smartphone shipments to lift the company to its most profitable quarter in over two years. The Hindu reports: "Riding on the strong sales of its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones, Samsung Electronics on Thursday declared 8.14 trillion won ($7billion) year on-year operating profit -- 18 percent in the second quarter results. Touted as bad news for Apple that saw a 15 percent decline in iPhone sales in its second quarter results announced this week, Samsung saw substantial earnings improvement led by sales of its flagship products such as Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. A streamlined mid-to low-end smartphone lineup also contributed to improved profitability for the company. According to Samsung, it shipped about 90 million handsets in the April-June period with smartphones making up more than 80 per cent of the total, the Korea Herald reported. Samsung's second-quarter smartphone shipments are estimated at about 72 million units, almost doubling Apple's iPhone shipments of 40.4 million units during the same period."
Parent post and TFA made equal amount of sense.
After all, there is a vast difference between a shipment (sending the product to a warehouse or store) and a sale (customer actually purchasing the product).
It's nice that Samsung shipped more phones than Apple, but how many of them are sitting in a stuffed channel, as opposed to sitting in customer hands as a sold item?
Apple only reports actual sales, so until/unless Samsung reports actual sales, TFA means absolutely nothing at all, and looks awfully the same as Microsoft's old Xbox channel-stuffing antics.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
In the 1990s, Apple made high margins on their PCs, and almost went bankrupt.
Businesses preferred the much less expensive Windows boxes. So windows became the standard.
Once you control the standard, everybody else is an also-ran.
If Android because the dominate standard in smart phones, Apple is in serious trouble. I think Apple makes about 60% of their revenue, and 80% of their profits from iPhones. If iPhone sales slip, it might be 1997 all over again.
With Tim Cook more worried about promoting homosexuality and parading a freak show of minorities (gay, black, fat) than displaying an hip and organised image, and worrying about the technical flaws, frankly it does not surprise me Android is gaining moment. What does surprise me is the high price of Samsung in Europe. Shave it in half than Apple, and I will buy it.