President Trump’s love of Samsung goes back to its early adoption of giant phones

64 Comments

“On Thursday, President Donald Trump tweeted a story that Korean electronic giant Samsung may build a home appliance factory in the U.S.,” Ethan Wolff-Mann reports for Yahoo Finance.

“‘Thank you, Samsung! We would love to have you,’ he wrote,” Wolff-Mann reports. “The company, currently embroiled in an exploding phone scandal that led to the recall over a million Note 7 phones, has had issues with appliances of late, with 2.8 million washing machines recalled in November due to the tops of machines detaching from the chassis, potentially causing bodily harm.”

Wolff-Mann reports, “Still, it may take a lot of bad news to sour Trump on Samsung. For years on Twitter, the 45th president has trumpeted the company’s large phone screens, which emerged during the diminutive iPhone 5 years before Apple’s larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve said for many years (see below): Apple was very late, they knew it, and there’s no telling how many millions of high-value customers they lost to Android makers like Samsung because of it — customers who will be much more difficult to acquire now than if Apple had properly-sized iPhones ready for buyers when they wanted them. Apple’s getting them to switch in a relative trickle over a period of many years, and many years to come, when they could have had virtually all of them with a bit more foresight.

As we wrote on January 3, 2014:

Some portion of [those who want larger smartphone displays than Apple currently offers] are too stupid, blind, or pathologically anti-Apple to have ever purchased an iPhone, regardless of screen size.

This is not to say that Apple, the world’s most valuable tech company, rolling in more billions of dollars than they know what to do with, shouldn’t have a larger screen iPhone available by now. They should. It’s criminal malpractice on the part of Tim Cook that they don’t. The sales Apple have left and continue to leave on the table should have been keeping Phil Schiller up at night for at least the last year.

Yes, Apple should have a bigger iPhone yesterday, but this is just simple logic: Not all phablet owners would have bought an iPhone even if a bigger iPhone was available.

We understand fragmentation. We understand the issues of producing apps that work on devices with various screen sizes (intimately).

None of it matters because too much of the market wants an iPhone with a bigger screen. Developers will simply work harder for the premium customers found on the premium platform. Period.

This omission – not iMacs and Mac Pros that miss Christmas or anything else – is Tim Cook’s biggest mistake to date. Apple should have a bigger iPhone on the market by now, but since, for some inexplicable reason a company with more cash at their disposal than Intel Corp. is worth doesn’t, the sooner the better.

—

And, as we wrote on January 23, 2014:

When Apple finally extracts their collective head from their collective ass and ships iPhone models with larger screens, they’ll do more damage to slavish copier Samsung than all of their endless, plodding patent infringement cases combined.

We believe that Apple became infatuated with the fact that only they could produce small, thin smartphones with an efficient OS that could work with the small batteries that these compact iPhones housed. “Nobody else can do such things.” Meanwhile, battery-hogging Android leeches like Samsung slapped larger screens on their phones to hide the fact that they needed significantly larger batteries in order to run for even a few hours (Android phones are notorious for running out of charge).

Far too many otherwise intelligent consumers saw little or nothing of Apple’s considerable engineering superiority (the iPhone 5s is simply the best smartphone anyone has ever produced), these otherwise intelligent consumers only saw iPhone’s smaller screens. They didn’t see Android’s inefficiency or inferior ecosystem, they only saw phones with larger screens.

If we’ve heard from one person who went with an Android phone for a larger screen who in fact really wanted an iPhone – “I’d have gotten an iPhone if only they had a larger screen” – we’ve heard it from a thousand. These are top tier, cream-of-the-crop customers (i.e. Apple’s target demographic), not low information cheapskates. They want to be Apple customers and participate heavily in Apple’s ecosystems, but, for a few years now, Apple has been blowing these sales by failing to deliver the product these high value customers desired. It’s inexplicable; any downsides (fragmentation, inventory management, etc.) are vastly outweighed by the vast sales potential to those who should be Apple customers, but are now carrying a plastic piece of crap from Samsung.

Bottom line: Apple screwed the pooch on this one. Shit or get off the pot, Tim.

—

And, as we wrote on January 28, 2014:

No iPhone with a screen larger than 4-inches – it’s now 2014 – despite a plethora of high-value customers who obviously want to buy one, but have turned to other platforms in order to get a smartphone with a larger screen. Oops. Mismanaged.

One-handed interaction is a concocted load of bullshit attempting to cover for not having a proper lineup of iPhones offering customers varied display sizes at even this late date.

SEE ALSO:
President-elect Trump’s Android phone could be a national security crisis – November 14, 2016
Did you see what Donald Trump tweeted about Apple? – November 24, 2015
Apple’s largest individual shareholder, Carl Icahn, endorses Donald Trump for U.S. President – September 28, 2015
Apple in April 2013: ‘Customers want what we don’t have’ – April 7, 2014
Donald Trump: Why I sold my Apple stock – January 30, 2014
Donald Trump explains Apple’s stock swoon – January 28, 2014
Donald Trump: Apple must go to a larger screen iPhone now! – October 15, 2013
Donald Trump: Tim Cook must immediately increase iPhone’s screen size – April 29, 2013

64 Comments

    1. Ha! Good one!

      Yet, the fact remains: Trump was right all along and likely before Apple themselves even realized it.

      They were blowing out customers like a malfunctioning sluice box fails to catch gold, as Todd Hoffman might say. Customers like future President Trump knew what they wanted, looked at Apple and moved on to outfits like Samsung to get large screen smartphones.

      Reply

      1. Meanwhile during all that yelling we were all doing, apple was still selling vastly more iPhones per quarter than Samsung was selling galaxy’s… Apple takes their time, and they were a little late, but the record sales don’t seem to give a shit.

        Shouldn’t your dear leader be using something that is actually secure and doesn’t explode? If he were that smart he’d do that regardless of screen size. Doesn’t bode well for his deductive reasoning….nor yours for that matter. The world is not a simplistic game of white hats and black hats, or good guys and bad guys. It’s not a movie or an episode of 24. Learn how things work, and get some critical thinking skills.

        Reply

        2. Actually he’s not, if you look at the signature on his tweets it’s still a galaxy. The @potus account is run with a secure device, but he most definitely not using one. But they did use a gmail account to secure that to begin with, which is stupid. It was corrected but still. And then there’s the issue of all of his people still using rnc emails accounts, you know a private server?

          My point simply is that if he’s so smart why didn’t he realize the security issue prior to being forced into another one, and why did he advocate for apple to break their encryption so forcefully?

          And now Samsung phones are suddenly ok with these people even though they’re terrible, and they’ve railed on them for years? I don’t think you understand my overall point.

        4. Dumbass… again read rtfa…

          A report by BuzzFeed News called Trump’s Twitter account a “security disaster waiting to happen.” With shy of 21 million followers, the president-elect’s Twitter account has “no known special security protections,” which if exploited, could lead to financial gain or geopolitical instability.

          The signature on this personal account makes it clear it’s a galaxy device…. the pouts account, as I’ve stated is run with a secure device. Do you live in a alternate universe or have the reading comprehension of third grader?

        10. “Shouldn’t your dear leader be using something that is actually secure and doesn’t explode?”

          Well, that lets out Hillary Clinton’s private server!

  2. And yet I’ve never owned iPhone 6 or 7 (my wife has), phone should be small so it’s easy to carry and use on the go. When I need a bigger screen I pull out the iPad. But I see the change coming, Apple Watch is getting better and taking the place of a small phone so maybe in the future I will have iPhone 8 plus.

    Reply

    1. Ha!! He is totally Joffrey! I hadn’t thought of that, but it the perfect description of agent orange. From now on I shall refer to him as Joffrey.

      (For those who don’t watch game of thrones, Joffrey is a teenager who becomes king and acts like a petulant child when criticized, while not having and f’ing clue what he’s doing)

      Reply

        3. I think that is apt. Chaplin was one of the first people to truly expose what that mustached person actually was. If they start wearing uniforms with T on them, then the transformation will be complete.

      1. It is… Donald Joffrey Trump, man baby who can’t get along with Australians. With his orange complexion and insane hair was his father a baboon? We will never know the truth until he gives us his long form birth certificate, but even then we will insist for 5 years that it’s a fake and make up baseless conspiracy theories, until that Russian zoo releases alll the info… “we have people on the ground now and they can’t believe what they’re finding…”

        (In case the irony is lost on you botty…. try replacing Joffrey with barrack)

        Reply

        6. No, you’re someone who calls someone names when you’re wrong because you can’t understand information or have nothing to contribute to a discussion. Remember when you refused to admit you made a bet with me? And then I proved it and you still deflected?

        8. Hey asshole, you did in fact make a bet with me, September 2016, and have now twice refused to admit it. I am absolutely correct about 1984, and just keep checking until I get my photos up… because I will post them on every single comment you make… and it’s not your country… in case you forgot you’ve lost the popular vote, by 3,000,000…. that means your guy and your positions aren’t as popular as our side. Electoral nonsense and minority positioning aside, globally your positions are massively backwards and unpopular. So when it’s time for you to grow up and think about the world in less simplistic ways? You can thank us intelligent tolerant people for your stable world. Otherwise you can enjoy your Viking raid approach to diplomacy, and ability to piss off the most laid back people on the planet (Australians)…. you have no f’ing clue how the world works, and maybe if y u spent some time in other countries you’d get some perspective. Good day you ignorant troglodyte (not like you know what that word means)

  5. Beleaguered fake presidents take tastes knows no bounds.

    But of course he wouldn’t buy American. If the Russians were making smartphones you know he’d be way up Putin’s ass begging for one.
    …I mean while he’s already up in there..

    Reply

      1. Lost by more than 3 million votes. More people wanted her by far bigger margin that orange head.
        The majority is still majorly against the the beleaguered fake president, so, we the majority of Americans have to stand up and get his ass impeached before he cause W type catastrophes.

        Reply

        1. He won the popular vote in 30 of the 50 states. Crooked H. only won the popular vote in 20 states.
          How hard is that for a sore loser to understand? Even using that crappy Common Core Math shows he won.
          The goal is to win the Electoral votes.
          Even if he did win the national popular vote, you’d still bitch and moan. That’s just how you Libs are wired. If you lose it’s got to be some kind of cheating or tampering. Suck it up and deal with it. We had 8 years of “America Last” thinking.
          Join the Winning Side! It feels Great!!!

        2. They way you say it means that a person living in one state is worth more than a person living in another. Otherwise, there is no logic by which one could say that your beloved president received more votes than the other guy (girl).

          There is only one way a republican candidate can actually enter into the White House these days, and it is through a system that values some voters more than others. Last time a Republican candidate for presidency entered the White House with a majority of the popular vote was during the original Cold War, in 1988, when there was still Soviet Union (and Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, and Margaret Thatcher was the PM of UK). Most of the readers of MDN weren’t even born back then. That was 28 years ago (seven presidential elections took place since).

          The movement forward is unstoppable. The demographic and cultural changes, and social progress, are irreversible. Not even rigging the election system so that it favours one group of citizens (rural voters) at the expense of the others (urban voters) can overcome it. If no major changes to the platform occur in the Republican party, I wouldn’t be surprised if Donald Trump (or Mike Pence, if Trump gets impeached) end up being the last Republican president ever.

          I’m sure most republicans in senate and congress are quite aware of this and will take the next two years to try and push through as many changes as they possibly can before they lose their control forever. Let us just hope that the country doesn’t become the next Saudi Arabia (you know, where they stone gays and adulterous women, where women can’t drive, etc, etc…).

        3. Exactly. Texas is one cycle away from flipping, at that point there is no path to victory for republican candidates. Arizona is a cycle away and it almost flipped this time, Georgia is one cycle away and almost flipped, and if NC manages to kick out their minority state representatives, it’s gone too. You can cheat, gerrymander, and obstruct all you want in the effort to drag us back into the dark ages… but this election was your last salvo, the arc of history moves forward and if it’s moving too fast for you? Tough. The majority of the planet wants to move forward, not back. Women like their rights, and they will not give them up no matter how much you try, we in the LGBTQ community will keep our progress. Black people will keep their rights at all costs. It’s not 1950 anymore, or as some of you think 1650… we’re not going back there whether you like it or not.

        5. Doesn’t matter.
          Trump played the game according to the rules and won. You can try to delegitimize it all you want but it won’t do squat.
          It is quite entertaining though, to see all the unhinged losers showing their true colors.
          Thank God for President Trump!!

        6. Doesn’t matter.
          Trump played the game according to the rules and won. You can try to delegitimize it all you want but it won’t do squat.
          It is quite entertaining though, to see all the unhinged losers showing their true colors.
          Thank God for President Trump!!
          Maybe now that he has eased the regs on “Big Pharma”, we can now use experimental drugs to hopefully cure Liberalism.

        7. Saying it twice doesn’t make it any more relevant, or meaningful.

          Your response to me makes absolutely no sense. I am not even American; therefore, could not and did not vote in your presidential election. There was nothing for me to lose or win here. Not to mention that I never disputed that your guy won the game — every single post of mine on the subject in fact confirms exactly that — winning fair and square. For some reason, though, he seems hell-bent on invalidating the election result with his claims of 3 million illegal votes. Does he want a do-over???

          The point of the whole discussion is, the only way a republican candidate can win the White House is by using an outdated electoral system that favours the lower-educated, rural voters at the expense of higher-educated urban voters.

          Some representative republic you have there….

        1. Your co-horts believe everything YOUR news and leaders tell you. Why are YOURS always right and ours always wrong? Truth is, most people of this country don’t want any more refugees of any kind. We are having trouble taking care of all the needy we already have that are citizens, and the Dumbocrats want to bring in MORE needy to add to the problem. ENOUGH! We are already taxed to death trying to supply everyone else’s needs out of our small paychecks, supplying funds for those that want work and can’t get a job, poor veterans, (I’m OK with helping those 2), and worse those who don’t want a job (drugs are more important and I know too many of those), or women and men who want to do nothing but reproduce and have 3 more kids when they couldn’t even afford to support 1, or just themselves! The working people are fed up with business as usual.

    1. He was hardly alone back then (MDN took up quite a lot of web space here quoting their own takes from back then on the same subject). Quite many other pompous know-it-alls were bloviating back then about the need for phablets.

      It is clear now that the phablet and larger-than-5S market was real, but at that time, Apple was still deeply in the “What would Steve Do?” mode, and Steve was quite clear and vocal about the reasons large phones are bad. iPhone 6 proved him wrong, but it took Cook, Ive and the rest of the team three years to figure it out.

      Reply

  8. First, I’ll wait to see if Samsung even builds that new factory. Lots of promises get made, and we know Samsung isn’t the company with the most integrity.

    We also know that Samsung will bribe heads of state for favors; maybe they are paying Trump for this tweet! In all seriousness, maybe Trump prefers Samsung because they will be just as shady and dishonest as he is.

    The iPhone big screen debate is over…that’s old news. And Trump got it wrong; he says he sold his Apple stock and yet that stock has gone on to greater heights.

    My take is that this is Trump’s way of taking a subtle swipe at Apple for their stance on the immigration issue. He doesn’t want to take them on directly right now…so he’s just dropping a hint.

    Reply

      1. No. Not yet.

        But if Samsung decided to build a factory that makes phones in America, the money it would generate in America would be significantly lower than the commerce that Apple generates with iPhones, even when they are made overseas.

        An average Galaxy phone costs half as much as an average iPhone. The cost to make an average Galaxy phone is roughly similar (we’re talking bill of materials here, no labour) as the iPhone, just slightly lower. On a $650 base model iPhone, for which Apple pays Foxconn around $220 to make and ship to US, Apple rakes in over $400 in US taxable revenue. If Samsung decided to make their phone in the US, and sold that phone for $450, their taxable revenue would be significantly smaller. The slightly lower bill-of-materials would end up being significantly higher wholesale FOB cost of that Galaxy phone once you add US labour cost. Obviously, that would be American labour, (the whole purpose of moving manufacturing stateside), so that expense actually ends up contributing to the US commerce, but even with that, the total sum per one Galaxy phone that would be pumped into the US economy would unlikely exceed $200.

        So, in order for America to get a few thousand paying jobs assembling Samsung phones (with imported parts, mind you), the US would have to sacrifice half of tax revenue generated on sales of those phones. It is easy to realise that the lost tax revenue would have paid more than the salaries for those few thousand US workers, if the phones were still made overseas. Samsung sells over 200 million devices per year. Each generates some $100 of profit (if made in USA) or up to $200 (if made in China). That profit is taxed by the IRS. That’s $20B difference in taxable revenue. If they hire 6000 workers to assemble these phones, they would have to pay them over $1 million each (!!) in order to make up the tax revenue (and US commerce) lost because of a significantly lower profit margin. And if they pay the prevailing wage (say, $50,000), this would be a major net loss for the US economy. Not to mention significant hit on Samsung’s bottom line (not that anyone would cry over that one).

        Reply

  12. Sold his stock. Genius. 😂

    Your country has gone from being a beacon of hope to the worlds laughing stock. And some of you in here actually think he’s really in it for the workers! Oh..I’m ill over here..😂

    Reply

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