“With smartphone buyers increasingly choosing iPhones or lower-cost options over its devices, Samsung Electronics has been hammered this year,” Paresh Dave reports for The Los Angeles Times. “The latest news on Wednesday showed operating profit fell more than 60% to $3.9 billion in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, its lowest mark since the days of the iPhone 4 in 2011. Shares of the electronics maker have fallen more than 23% during the last three months as the company forecast gloomy days ahead for its smartphone business.”
“The stumble comes despite the South Korean company’s attempt to do more than any of its competitors to offer freebies to high-end customers in hopes of maintaining their loyalty. Samsung packages free trials and subscriptions to apps and periodicals with some of its phones,” Dave reports. “Galaxy phone owners can get upgraded to luxury suites at more than 40 venues in the U.S., and users in Asia can get discounts on lodging or food. There’s also been early access to content, such as music and movie clips.”
“Yet, 27% of people planning to buy an iPhone 6 last month were giving up on their Samsung phone, according to a survey by Digital World Research,” Dave reports. “‘I was surprised because Samsung has competitive products in the Note 4 and S5, yet Samsung owners were looking to change,’ said P.J. McNealy, the research firm’s chief executive. ‘One interpretation is that the iPhone 6 really is the hot product, the ‘it’ thing, the latest and greatest.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iPhone roadkill. 🙂
An iPhone with a larger screen option will hurt Samsung immeasurably more than myriad, unending traipses through the legal morass. – MacDailyNews, May 2, 2014
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bill” for the heads up.]
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