“Why isn’t Samsung in the copier business? After all, who copies technology better than Samsung?” Kate MacKenzie writes for Mac360. “As much as the technorati elite like to think that Google’s Android dominates Apple’s iOS devices, Google isn’t even a major money player in the smartphone and tablet industry. It’s Apple vs. Samsung; the only two truly profitable mobile device manufacturers. Can you guess what Apple has that Samsung has not copied?”
“The Lord knows that Samsung has tried desperately to paint itself and a slew of mobile devices as the new Apple, the innovator and leader of the next great thing. Reality bites, though, and Samsung has failed to generate Apple’s famed profit levels, despite spending as much as 10 times more than Apple marketing the Samsung brand,” MacKenzie writes. “Samsung [also] hasn’t figured out how to capture Apple’s customer loyalty or brand. Apple has sold over 500-million iPhones, and the vast majority of those customers were and are well satisfied with their purchases. Samsung spent millions on TV commercials trying to paint iPhone owners as stupid sheep.”
MacKenzie writes, “Sure, that’s a good way to get an iPhone owner to jump from quality and durability to cheaper plastic.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple is destroying slavish copier Samsung in brand loyalty, retention – March 31, 2014
You can never truly buy credibility. You can fake it for a while with enough cash but when that cashflow dries, you’re actually far worse off than when you started.
I agree with your sentiments, but wonder how Samsung can possibly run into trouble as long as Apple only competes in the high end.
What Samsung has going for it is that it is consolidating the low and mid markets. In the PC industry there was never a clear #2 like that.
If anyone can see a scenario where Samsung loses the mid/low end markets I would like to hear it.
Apple innovates and sets the quality standard. Samsung follows and sets the ‘good enough’ standard for customers who can’t afford high quality. Have fun with that Samsung. Be sure to take a look at the recent history of the PC industry, where Windows boxes are no longer ‘good enough’. What does that tell you about your future?
Right, Apple is the prime innovator and Samsung the prime copier. But the mobile industry is not turning out anything like the PC industry so far.
Samsung is successfully scooping up the mid and low end where Apple is not trying to compete. HP, Dell, etc. can only wish they ever had been able to do that.
It looks to me like Samsung is going to be very successful by putting other Android phones out of business, and getting almost no competition from Apple in mid/low pricing ranges.
How can Samsung lose if Apple only competes in the high end? Even if Samsung loses the high end market, they will still have the mid and low end markets. Their ability to produce high quality components gives them the ability to keep following, although perhaps not as obviously.
Seriously, other than hyperbole about copycats, can anyone state clearly how Samsung could lose its position as #2?
Apple IS selling the iPhone 4S. It at least fits into the ‘mid end market’ at $450 unlocked, free with a contract. Whether Apple is marketing well enough is a question.
Meanwhile, it’s clear that Samsung has had to spend A LOT of money marketing to get their current market share. They also contribute next-to-nothing to the future of smartphones. They owe their existence in the smartphone business to Apple and Google, whose Android OS also owes its A LOT to Apple.
IOW: No Apple, no Android (as it is now) and no Samsung smartphones.
So champion Samsung all you like. You’re REALLY championing Apple. You’re REALLY indebted to Apple.
Meanwhile, there’s Samsung’s Tizen OS as a replacement for Android. No one but Samsung has any interest in building hardware for it. It’s not 64-bit. It’s just there and going not much of anywhere. So again, Samsung owes its smartphone existence to Apple.
So disrespect Apple because WHY?!
Thanks for responding with such insight despite thinking I am a Samsung apologist. I am actually a huge Apple fan having bought sixteen iPhones (2 of every model + 2 damaged phone replacements), four iPads and dozens of iMacs, Mac Pros and MacBooks and MacBook Airs. (Hazards of a techno-family of seven. 🙂
But Samsung has done very well for itself and I find that interesting to analyze. They really are killing it in the marketplace. It is only with respect to Apple that anyone can say Samsung’s business is not stellar. And Apple is not just #1 in smartphones, they the @1 business in the world. So Samsung, for all their brawling, is really doing well.
I know everyone here wants to see Samsung take the big dive, but they seem to have set themselves up. Apple is intentionally not competing with many of their phones. That leaves Samsung to destroy the other (Google-version) Android makers.
I agree with you that Tizen is grasping at straws. I can’t see how they can make that jump work either. But in the meantime, as much as they want to be free of Google they are milking that companies software and services to sell mid/low price phones. Its the catseat of fast followers.
All judgements aside, I don’t see anyone unseating Samsung from a very enviable position as #2. It is going to be interesting to see how all this plays out.
I’ve covered this issue. But thank you for further exploring your point of view.
And also asking the question that nobody here seems to have an answer to (myself included).
And we also know what a #2 is.
In this case, fabulously wealthy.
If only #1 companies in any category made any money there would quickly be little competition to keep them on their game.
Samsung can fail by someone eating their lunch from below. Samsung has no special characteristics, they are another Android phone. If some Chinese company comes along (and there are several) and says to the customers “Our products are just like Samsung’s but cheaper” then what can Samsung do? They can’t modify Android to make it better, that is controlled by Google. They could lower their prices, but that hurts profits. This is probably why they have been trying hard to personalize their phones with their own software. Note that they never talk about using Android.
Call me
Todd Frank MacMyDay
>
Two choices: hubris or the real deal. Given enough time, most people will eventually figure it out. But some may not…
Samsung does make copiers. All the low end Xerox branded copiers are manufactured by Samsung, aside from the ones they sell under their own brand name.
One thing Samsung can’t copy?
— Tim’s adam’s apple!
APRIL FOOLS!!!!
🙂
Simple, Samsung spends its cash on copying and marketing, Apple spends its cash on R&D and Great Engineers who are empowered to use their imagination.
One thing Samsung has not been able to copy is apples iTunes and App Store rich culture
Apple could compete in computers in the lower end should it want to. Just like they do with previous models of iPhone and I pad why not do the same with computers. Put previous gen iMacs at reduced prices and MacBook airs and MacBook pros at reduced prices. I don’t see why they need to price a MacBook Pro at over 2k to begin with. But Apple could really take the market by doing lower cost previous model units just like they do in mobile