Samsung has put a leak in Apple’s hull as their profit margins spewed another 12% decrease and the next generation Samsung Galaxy S IV may do an equal amount of damage to Apple again in late 2013
For Apple to have hit $700 a share, many would have thought Apple to currently be releasing new products left and right the would wow and dazzle the tech industry. Recently though Apple isn’t dazzling most people and reality has seemed to settle in as Apple numbers sort of prove investors aren’t seeing the lackluster innovations of current as those of old.
The reality seems to be that not only has Apple not been producing superb products with a flawless operating system (iOS) to justify the soaring stock price, but the competition has been on their tail for quite some time now and is catching up, month-by-month.
Samsung has put a leak in Apple’s hull as Apple’s profit margins absorbed another 12% decrease – now down to a $450 share. The same can’t be said of Samsung though, the leading smartphone maker had a comparatively 20% increase in sales.
Samsung’s current mobile numbers are not only record setting for Samsung, but for the industry as a whole. Although Samsung doesn’t exact figures for smartphone shipments, IDC estimates the number to be nearly 64 million, compared to Apple which had a bit less than 48 million. If you include court cases in the income numbers though, Apple did rake in a nice $1bn in damages from Samsung in a patent case in the US last year. At one point Samsung was returning Apple’s fire with attempts to ban sales of Apple products as well in about 5 European countries, but Samsung dropped pursuit of the Apple bans.
Although Samsung has reported records numbers recently, the company has interestingly warned investors that forthcoming Q1 2013 results will probably not be as astounding, noting that smartphone sales will probably slow during Q1. Samsung has announced though, and that Q2 should see the arrival of the next generation smartphone that will replace their current Galaxy S3. Considering the quality of Samsungs next product be equal to or greater than that of the S3, the next generation smartphone should drive up the remainder of the the quarters for 2013.