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'The Samsung Galaxy S6 Sales Disaster'
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It doesn't paint the entire picture, and there are plenty of legitimate reasons to pick an iPhone over a technically superior rival. I do think that there is a large slice of the market who pick an iPhone for entirely superficial reasons though.
That would be valid only if every single android smartphone sold was the same price as an iPhone. Or are you saying that Apple has to outsell every Android OEM combined in order to be considered a success?
This isn't a democracy where it's 1 vote per unit sold. It's a free market, where it's 1 vote per dollar of sales, and when you consider that Apple got 89% of the smartphone profits not so long ago, this meant that Apple earned 8 times everyone else combined!
As I have said, this just means that neither sales nor market share is in itself a meaningful metric of how successful a product is, though each does help to shed some light on the matter.
If you ask me, the real winners are Apple (because they get all the hardware profits) and Google (they get the market share and the advertising revenue). Remember, Google does not have to lose for Apple to win (and vice versa), as their business models are wholly different. The losers are the hardware vendors (like Samsung) who have to contend with increasing commoditisation of their products and ever diminishing profits.
That's my take at least.
I agree especially with your last paragraph. One doesn't lose because another is winning. Apple is a big winner, getting benefits from hardware and software. While android oems like Samsung must compete with others that use the same base os like Sony, lg, one plus, xiaomi.
I agree. Lots of people dislike that iPhones have sealed in batteries and no removable storage, and lots of people liked Samsung purely because they offered a removable battery and SD card. It is absolutely possible to have a well engineered phone which isn't plastic and yet still has a removable cover. Samsung dropped the ball here IMO. Sure many people are happy to charge their phone and don't need to swap batteries, but it's nice to pop a brand new battery in when the charge isn't as good as it used to be. Being able to easily buy a genuine Samsung battery was brilliant. Yes it's fairly easy to change an iPhone battery but obtaining a genuine Apple one is impossible, unless you pay well over the odds and ask Apple to change it for you.
Quite a few times. Kinda expected; it's like the only metric left that android users can use to give the illusion that smartphone OEMs are somehow "winning" the fight with Apple.
I mean, if people want to emphasise profitless market share, well, they are entitled to their opinions, I suppose.
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In a sense, the S6 was influenced by the sales figures of the S5. Hypothetically speaking, if sales remain poor, do you think that Samsung will remain in the phone industry and continue making the phones that you love to use?
I think you are being over dramatic. Yes Samsung may not have sold as many S6's as they wanted to. But they are no where near close to crashing out of the mobile industry. Don't forget that they are still the biggest selling OEM in the world and outsell all of the other android OEMs combined. Samsung are still making tons of money from their smartphone sales, just not as much as before.
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If Samsung were able to produce a phone with excellent battery life like the 6 plus then having a sealed on battery would not be an issue. Likewise having 128 GB of onboard storage negates the need for expandable storage imo. Pay for what you need.
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I agree. I statrted off with an iphone and moved over to Samsung for a few years as they were offering a better product for me at the time. I now have the iphone 6 plus and for me it is better than anything Samsung have to offer at the moment.
Mainly it's the ecosystem, integration with other products (e.g. ipad,mac, apple tv, apple watch), better quality apps, device stability, better customer support, better battery life.
Many of the advantages Samsung have over Apple have been negated for me with the 6 plus i.e screen size, screen resolution, widgets, third party keyboards, 128 GB internal storage, excellent battery life.
Yep I know. I was jsut refering back to when the 6 plus came out (S6 wasnt out).
Agree. The next iPhone 6S could be a bigger iP3 with the current screen sizes and it will sell millions and many will claim they were waiting for them to go back to plastic.
Agree with everything you said.
But to Apple's credit, their phones have become more of a norm than a trend as seen with year after year sales. BlackBerry had a good 3-5 year run while T-Mobile Sidekicks and Motorola RAZR were more of a flash in a pan trend. As much I feel there are better devices out there with better value which includes midrange devices like a $180 LG G3 Beat S (aka Beat or Vigor), I don't see the gravy train stopping anytime soon with iPhones. I see them being relevant for a solid 20 years like IBM computers, Sony Walkmans, etc. I don't see Apple being worse than 2nd best in mobile sales. Companies like LG, Sony, and Chinese OEM's either lack deep pockets, lack any ecosystem, or just ape Apple's moves and just follow their blueprint.
I think it's relative to past sales years though. I don't think a bigger ip3 would sell over 70 million in its first quarter. It's pretty remarkable that the iPhone has outsold itself pretty much every year, a feat not many can accomplish. It's not because of just the marketing either, it shows that it's a quality product that consumers enjoy and with overall great customer support. I'm sure at some point it could happen Apple have either a flat or decline in sales but for now it's shown its a quality product.
Like said earlier the s5 was a sales disappointment, one that illustrated by the market as not being good enough. Hence the revamped s6. And looking at articles it seems sales are up.
I guess you have a good point with the mid-range and low end hardware. There really isn't a low cost option with iphone that is of comparable quality to even the lower end of the midrange android phones. My mother has an iphone 5C and that thing is garbage. I use a 5s, and it has held up very well over the last 18 months or so. Wish the screen was bigger, but I'm not willing to fork over $600 to upgrade for an extra .7" and apple pay.
I look at the S6 as an interesting product. On paper, it is a superior phone to the 6 Plus. But the user experience is worse, not through any fault of the phone hardware but the OS. 14nm and 8 cores, incredibly fast storage, top of the line camera... but it is stuck to android and therefore become clunky and in the end, you are getting the same experience on a $200 LG G2 as you are on the S6 so why bother?
The crazy part when you look at all this, is that Samsung is actually killing it in comparison to any other android vendor. LG, HTC, Sony all would kill to be in Samsung's position right now. I think Samsung had it right with Tizen, they need to set themselves apart if they want to charge $600 for a handset. It's just not logical to spend that much when the same experience can be had for a fraction of the price.
On a side note; I wish people would cut out the "proliferation of devices with good enough hardware" because that is BS. I can use every fraction of the performance on my A7 powered 5s just web browsing, the same can be done on a 6+, or an S6. Processing speed is only "good enough" if you decide to accept mediocre performance and set limits for what you want. For me at least, there hasn't been anything close to good enough. Good enough will be when you press something and instantly it loads. No delay whatsoever. Or when Siri can calculate what I say in 100ths of a second.
'The Samsung Galaxy S6 Sales Disaster'
And why didn't the s6,?
Oh yes because the s5 was a flop and diminished Samsungs negotiating position with the carriers.
Guess what's going to happen if the the s6 continues to flop as well.
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Sales are an indicator of success.
That's why Samsung had a "sales predicition of 70 million" Galaxy s6 models. If they don't hit their target than yes it will be considered a failure just like the Galaxy 5.
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And why didn't the s6,?
Oh yes because the s5 was a flop and diminished Samsungs negotiating position with the carriers.
Guess what's going to happen if the the s6 continues to flop as well.
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Sales are an indicator of success.
That's why Samsung had a "sales predicition of 70 million" Galaxy s6 models. If they don't hit their target than yes it will be considered a failure just like the Galaxy 5.
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'The Samsung Galaxy S6 Sales Disaster'
I think you've hit the nail on the head in terms of fashion. The iPhone is a good smartphone with functionality and does all the expected standard tasks a consumer needs, but it is also perceived as a 'cool' device through strong branding and excellent product design.
This is something the likes of Samsung, LG and Sony has not managed to match. Sony have tried with the Walkman phones for over 10 years and never captured the coolness they once had in the 70's, 80's and 90's. The S6 is s superb phone but isn't as desirable to the mainstream because the brand behind it isn't perceived as a 'must have brand'. Specs don't even enter the equation outside of the geeks among us in all honesty. Then again not everybody explores the features their phones have with any real depth so marketing around specs often falls on deaf ears. The S6 will still ultimately sell well even if it doesn't quite match Samsung's predictions. It's a good phone no doubt.
I think you've hit the nail on the head in terms of fashion. The iPhone is a good smartphone with functionality and does all the expected standard tasks a consumer needs, but it is also perceived as a 'cool' device through strong branding and excellent product design.
This is something the likes of Samsung, LG and Sony has not managed to match. Sony have tried with the Walkman phones for over 10 years and never captured the coolness they once had in the 70's, 80's and 90's. The S6 is s superb phone but isn't as desirable to the mainstream because the brand behind it isn't perceived as a 'must have brand'. Specs don't even enter the equation outside of the geeks among us in all honesty. Then again not everybody explores the features their phones have with any real depth so marketing around specs often falls on deaf ears. The S6 will still ultimately sell well even if it doesn't quite match Samsung's predictions. It's a good phone no doubt.
Well I just picked up a S6 yesterday and the store was packed with people buying S6. The salesmen swears he sells more S6 then anything. Of course that means nothing but I'm so far I'm enjoying my first samsung.
I was on topic the S6 is a great phone and should sell more than the S5 once it is released in the same number of countries. Then lets look at total sales to put things in perspective. If sales are the defining metric for quality of a product(s). These are numbers for May. The S6 sales haven't had a chance to to really reflect anything yet. So if Samsung S6 sales are disappointing....yet Samsung still out sell Apple!
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It's off topic because:
1. This is s6 sales
2. Not compared to Apple
3. Not compared to the total android phones Samsung sells that are not flagship
Sales is an indication only the seller is selling to the correct target demographics. The quality issue is a separate discussion.
Sales figures are for the previous generation of S5 which did very very badly. Honestly the S6 should put Sammy back on the map like the career of Nasty Nas.
Mobile processors are very capable. No operating system is using these processors to their fullest capacity, most due to design considerations; ie battery and heat. The hardware has to be "good enough" and not instant. Designing for the case of every interaction being instant is not viable.
Oh please show us all some backup proving that bs you just said about samsung the number 1 selling android maker and all cell phone maker lost its deals with carriers to sell the gs6.
How bout Samsung is making every thing in the gs6 and could not meet demand for a world launch?they had to use 2 different cameras and had to open another factory to make the curved edge screen to meet demand.
no I think it's because countries didn't want to sell the best android device and lose contract deals because the s5 didn't sell well
/S
Oh and for the record the ceo of samsung debunked this a few days ago.I wonder why forbs don't make a follow up saying that it's not true? Maybe because the title and topic will get millions more hits?
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The S5 didn't do badly. It just sold less than Samsung would have wanted. It still sold between 30-40 million units. More than HTC, LG, Motorola et al combined.
My understanding is the S6 is a great phone. However, most reviewers of the LG G4 consider it comparable without Samsung's terrible battery life.
The G4 might turn out to be a great phone and it borders on the phablet side. But how do you know about the bolded above. Because just about everyone that actually has a S6 here on MR has reported great battery life.