“‘Smartphones have now become a commodity.’ An executive at Samsung Electronics has attributed the failure of the Galaxy S6 Edge to the ‘commoditization’ of smartphones,” Lee Jeong-hun reports for The Hankyoreh.
“The company dispensed with the replaceable battery of previously successful models and poured billions of dollars into developing a metal case and a curved screen, but the results did not live up to expectations,” Lee reports. “In the end, these big changes did not make much of a difference to consumers.”
“The slump in smartphones led to a drop in revenues,” Lee reports. “Revenues at Samsung Electronics last year were projected by KTB Investment & Securities to be around 200 trillion won (US$168.1 billion), or about 6 trillion won less than the previous year (206 trillion won).”
“The company has tightened its belt, freezing salaries for executives and employees and slashing its marketing budget. This should nudge operating profit up by about 1 trillion won,” Lee reports. “But Samsung’s difficulties are unlikely to go away this year, because of the downturn in the market. The smartphone market posted a single-digit growth rate for the first time, and the average selling price of units continues to fall.”
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, that’s too bad, isn’t it? 🙂
Thermonuclear.Samsung’ difficulties aren’t because of “the downturn in the market.” They have to do with a total lack of foresight combined, of course, with a culture of theft:
Shackled to Android, Samsung has no point of differentiation. Apple will continue to take unit and the rest of the profit share from Samsung in the market segment in which they compete, and the bottom feeders will continue to take unit share as well. Tizen was Samsung’s only real hope, but they couldn’t manage to pull off such a large undertaking or, really, much of anything beyond mass producing inferior iPhone knockoffs. The world now sees: iPhone is the dream. If they have to settle for an Android phone until they can achieve iPhone, they can get the same thing Samsung offers at much lower prices from myriad Chinese Android handset assemblers (who are also knocking off Apple iPhones’ trade dress left and right).
Uh-huh. So what explains Apple’s stock woes.? Fanboys like you seem to think that Samsung’s stock devaluations are completely justified by the same people you criticize for Apple’s devaluation. So, who is deluding who?
Correction: _SAMSUNG_ smartphones have become a commodity. Media analysts may jump to the wrong conclusion that this therefore bodes doom for Apple. But Apple probably contributed to Samsung’s failure.
The world sees Samsung as low-class thieves. Consumers see Samsung phones as inferior products and cheap commodities. Samsung’s situation is the exact opposite of Apple’s, who have developed innovative and excellent products that represent good value.
Am I in another alternate universe? Apple Just cut production of iPhone by 30%? is that correct? WTF?
And we’re making fun of Samsung? Better keep your eye on the ball.
What the hell is Apple doing? Can’t all of those employees think of ANYTHING else to sell? Christ, You telling me that they cant compete against the XBOX at very least? How the F does Android get into 90% of the market? 30% cut and the stock is in the dump and all that happens is making fun of samsung? When is Apple going to BURY Google? Go into frickin SEARCH already,, Google stock will plunge… The Fat Cats are hooked up at Apple, why make things that are amazing? I can think of 10 things for every apple product that would be an instant improvement,, 128 GB is the biggest HD in an iPad Pro? No SD card slot, or any kind of removable additional memory? Who gives a shit about thin? Apple TV is not amazing, FCPX is not for pros, on and on and on. Oh yeah, the watch. Does apple even have an advertising department anymore? My kids are addicted to the iPad, so do we see any commercials featuring kids addition and love for the product? No. Getting off on Samsungs failings is not a strategy. With a lot of Aapl, and skin in the game, I’m just pissed at having NO reason to go to the apple store… I suppose I can pick up some Beats headphones,, not.
If I’m not mistaken, Apple ALWAYS cuts production in the first quarter of the calendar year because there is no holiday gift giving in that quarter, so of course there’s less demand than for the Christmas quarter. This is NOT news.
Let’s wait and see what Apple says in their financial report at the end of January…
You have listed a lot of things that would, in your opinion, be improvements, while in fact they wouldn’t.
FCP X is still the most popular NLE among those who make their living producing video. If that is not pro, I don’t know what is.
SD card slot in an iPad? That is PRECISELY why iOS platform is far better than Android. The SD card access has been the greatest source of frustrating among Android users; you must unmount before ejecting, you can never exactly know if the App is going to install internally or on the card, or if the app will store its data internally or on the card, and what happens to that app, or the phone, when the card is yanked out without being unmounted… The addition of the external drive would create precisely the kind of hassle it has for the Mac OS X, where you must ‘eject’ before pulling out, only ‘eject’ won’t work if you accidentally left some app open, and it is keeping a lock on some file on that card… And on the Mac, we only use those external devices for data storage, and not for installation of apps. Adding external data storage for the iOS would be the stupidest, most idiotic, asinine idea ever. Simply no.
Freezing salaries of employees is precisely the best thing they could do to boost the morale (and creativity and innovation) of their staff… Smart decision by the management…!
No longer the phone.
You buy the ecosystem that you want to connect with.
Hee Haw Hee Haw Ha Ha Ha Ha Samsung is for loserz
I am sure they are very sad that the crazy money is drying up for them, but at least they got the crazy money for a while.
Sometimes, you can lose and still win.
Of course, Apple is winning by winning. Even better.
Uh-huh. So what explains Apple’s stock woes.? Fanboys like you seem to think that Samsung’s stock devaluations are completely justified by the same people you criticize for Apple’s devaluation. So, who is deluding who?
Samsung’s R & D department is hard at work. Also known as the Rob & Duplicate department.
You deserve to lose you evil copying POS company. 😀
Correction: _SAMSUNG_ smartphones have become a commodity. Media analysts may jump to the wrong conclusion that this therefore bodes doom for Apple. But Apple probably contributed to Samsung’s failure.
The world sees Samsung as low-class thieves. Consumers see Samsung phones as inferior products and cheap commodities. Samsung’s situation is the exact opposite of Apple’s, who have developed innovative and excellent products that represent good value.
Am I in another alternate universe? Apple Just cut production of iPhone by 30%? is that correct? WTF?
And we’re making fun of Samsung? Better keep your eye on the ball.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-05/apple-falls-on-nikkei-report-that-sees-iphone-production-cut-30-
What the hell is Apple doing? Can’t all of those employees think of ANYTHING else to sell? Christ, You telling me that they cant compete against the XBOX at very least? How the F does Android get into 90% of the market? 30% cut and the stock is in the dump and all that happens is making fun of samsung? When is Apple going to BURY Google? Go into frickin SEARCH already,, Google stock will plunge… The Fat Cats are hooked up at Apple, why make things that are amazing? I can think of 10 things for every apple product that would be an instant improvement,, 128 GB is the biggest HD in an iPad Pro? No SD card slot, or any kind of removable additional memory? Who gives a shit about thin? Apple TV is not amazing, FCPX is not for pros, on and on and on. Oh yeah, the watch. Does apple even have an advertising department anymore? My kids are addicted to the iPad, so do we see any commercials featuring kids addition and love for the product? No. Getting off on Samsungs failings is not a strategy. With a lot of Aapl, and skin in the game, I’m just pissed at having NO reason to go to the apple store… I suppose I can pick up some Beats headphones,, not.
And yet, somehow, in spite of all the “failings” you point out (/s), they are managing to be the largest company on the planet.
If I’m not mistaken, Apple ALWAYS cuts production in the first quarter of the calendar year because there is no holiday gift giving in that quarter, so of course there’s less demand than for the Christmas quarter. This is NOT news.
Let’s wait and see what Apple says in their financial report at the end of January…
You have listed a lot of things that would, in your opinion, be improvements, while in fact they wouldn’t.
FCP X is still the most popular NLE among those who make their living producing video. If that is not pro, I don’t know what is.
SD card slot in an iPad? That is PRECISELY why iOS platform is far better than Android. The SD card access has been the greatest source of frustrating among Android users; you must unmount before ejecting, you can never exactly know if the App is going to install internally or on the card, or if the app will store its data internally or on the card, and what happens to that app, or the phone, when the card is yanked out without being unmounted… The addition of the external drive would create precisely the kind of hassle it has for the Mac OS X, where you must ‘eject’ before pulling out, only ‘eject’ won’t work if you accidentally left some app open, and it is keeping a lock on some file on that card… And on the Mac, we only use those external devices for data storage, and not for installation of apps. Adding external data storage for the iOS would be the stupidest, most idiotic, asinine idea ever. Simply no.
“The company has tightened its belt, freezing salaries for executives and employees and slashing its marketing budget.”
Hopefully this also means the end of paid Samsung trolls, apologists, media analysts, and “cough” journalists…
Freezing salaries of employees is precisely the best thing they could do to boost the morale (and creativity and innovation) of their staff… Smart decision by the management…!
Certainly, Android phones are commoditizied. I think Apple is the only meaningfully different phone with a vibrant ecosystem available.