Can Samsung Catch up with Apple?
Rekha is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
The giant conglomerates Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung had for the first time submitted their documents on earnings to the court. Both claimed to hold a superior position in the market. Samsung claimed to have made a whopping $1 million sale of Galaxy Tab computers in the three and a half weeks since its debut in November 2010 in the US. Seven weeks later it claims the sales surpassed $2 million. Yet there seems to be a big gap between the two companies when it comes to the sale of the tablets.
What do the numbers say?
Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab in the US amounted to 262,000 units in 2010 and the first quarter of 2011. Worldwide sales are said to be up by 117.6%. Sales in the US were down by 86% in the last quarter. The company earned revenue of $764 million, which it raked in by selling the Galaxy SII Epic to 1.67 million customers since its launch in mid 2011. The original Epic 4G brought in a total of $855 million in revenue. The first half of 2012 saw a sale of 21.1 million smartphones bringing in more than $7.5 billion to Samsung.
Apple revealed for the first time its domestic sale figures of iPhone and iPad, which estimates to an average of 42% of its worldwide unit sale of tablets over the past nine quarters. Apple sold 8.5 million iPhone in the US since its launch in the second quarter of 2007 to the second quarter 2012.Sale of 46.5 million of iPad also brought revenue of more than $10.2 billion.
The launch of the original Galaxy Tab worked well for Samsung as it was the only close substitute of the original iPad. The Galaxy Tab 10.1, that Apple claims to be similar to its iPhone, made a sale of only 585,000 units. On the contrary, the documents presented by Apple show that it had made a much higher sale of 5.7 million in the last quarter. Samsung Galaxy Tab’s total sale is reported to be mere 4% of Apple’s iPod sales.
Samsung’s claim of its whopping overseas trade of 2.4 million tablets in the last quarter is hard to believe. It claims 98.5% overseas trade but 1.5% sale in the US. A Samsung executive had admitted a lax in the sale of Galaxy Tab.
The outlook
As per Gartner, the global sales of smartphones are expected to fall sequentially. In addition, the uncertain economic environment is curbing consumer spending on mobile phones. However, despite such a slump Samsung posted a rise in its mobile sales by 30 percent compared to a year ago. All thanks to the popularity of its Galaxy smartphones. The company is giving Apple tough competition in the handset market where the former’s market share is getting stronger. The Samsung Galaxy Note had made good headway in the global market making 5 million unit sales within five months after its launch. Even with low-priced devices like Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle Fire and Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Nexus 7, Samsung expects more success with the Galaxy Note 10.1. There are high hopes that rest on this device.
But, whatever claims may be made or hopes rested upon, the competition with Apple is a long race for Samsung, with a nearly 70 percent share Apple remains at the top of the global tablet market. Let us wait and watch for the outcome even as both the giants wash their dirty linens.
rekhamarwah has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Amazon.com, and Google. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Amazon.com, Apple, and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.If you have questions about this post or the Fool’s blog network, click here for information.
