The sad song Samsung's sung: SEVENTH quarterly fail in a row Samsung has warned the market that it's going to miss its previous earnings guidance for the April-June quarter. It will be the Korean goliath's seventh successive quarter of decline in year-on-year terms. The original guidance of 7.2 trillion won (US$6.38 billion) has been downgraded to a forecast 6.9 terawon ($6.13 billion …
That time of the year is creeping in where my smartphone will be replaced, so I started looking around.
To my amazement I found that an S6 can be even more expensive than the Fruity stuff, and what does over 1K Euro get you ? Another droid Phone, virtually indistinguishable in form and certainly function from designs costing less than half the price, loaded with bloatware that will never be used (video editing on a Phone, really ?) and proudly displaying 'Samsung' on te hood.
Was Samsung really hoping this thing was going to lure punters away from the iPhone ?
Samsung always used every trick in the book to fluff up results in good quarters, massaging within the the bounds of the possible, when recognising revenue occurred, manipulating (as you can as a supplier) sales to channel (it's sales to the end customer you can't manipulate so easily) etc.
But the inexorable truth of double entry bookkeeping decrees that once the sales trend goes against you it is more painful than it would otherwise have been if you had not employed these tricks. Seven quarters however, reveals it is more than a partially self inflicted reporting issue where tricks in prior quarters have caught up with them. They are still rolling out the excuses. This time supply shortages, when along with Apple they have more control over their supply chain than any other company in the world. They are emphasising supply shortages simply because it distracts from the real problem. Lowering sales.
Yeah the "supply shortages" thing is really stupid, since they make nearly all of the components themselves. Apple runs into shortages with every new model because they always break the record set by the previous model and stress their whole supply chain, Foxconn manufacturing, etc. especially since they come closer and closer to a full worldwide release every iteration.
Samsung tries so hard to compete with Apple, they completely forget there are a bunch of other Android OEMs who make phones using virtually the same software, and mostly the same hardware, and don't all charge Apple-like prices like Samsung does. Maybe they should try telling people why they should buy a Samsung over a HTC or Xiaomi, instead of wasting their time trying to convert iPhone owners?
I have an S5, and from the little research I have done (http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/galaxy-s6-vs-galaxy-s5), upgrading doesn't look like a good deal. I'd lose the SD card slot and water resistance for the nearly double the cost - oooh, where do I sign? (and yes I do use the SD card, and yes it's full)
Time for Samsung to come clean and admit: "We thought we'd pull an Apple and gouge the customers for every penny they have. Turns out that android people have a choice of manufacturers, who knew?"
A quick scoot over to http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/mobile-devices/smartphones/ shows Samsung are selling 39 different smartphones.
Why? God only knows. They seriously need to simplify their lineup, just browsing that page makes my head spin. It's the sure sign of a company that doesn't know which direction to settle on, and therefore ends up going pretty much nowhere overall.
And they all look the same. At least with the Nokias you knew the higher the number the better the phone or you could pick the one you liked the look of if nothing else. WTF is the difference between a Prime, Young, Grand, Core, Mega, Fame, Trend, Activ, Ace, etc... etc...
So decide to look at the one everyone knows, the Galaxy S, except now it seems the latest one of those is worth three laptops. Sod that.
Too many run-of-the-mill models, it's true. But, Ironically, the one model of theirs I'd love to get my hands on, namely the S6 Active is only available on AT&T in the US.
Samsung seem to have a strange policy of making their best models the hardest to get hold of. That can't be doing sales much good.
Late last year they said they'd fix their falling sales & profits by reducing the number of models "by 30%", which seems about 30% too small of a cut. I haven't seen any evidence they actually cut anything though, given that there's the S6, S6 Edge, S6 Active and S6 Mini and S6 Plus coming that's five models just of one phone, and they still sell the S5, S4 and S3 versions, plus at least a half dozen versions of the Note. Since those 39 models don't include some I've listed here, maybe because they aren't sold worldwide (like the S6 Active that's only available in the US on one carrier) the actual number is even higher.
I find it especially amusing Samsung will be selling a 5.5" S6 Plus to compete with the 5.5" iPhone 6 Plus. If Apple calls the new one the 6S as expected, they'll sell a 6S Plus versus Samsung's S6 Plus. Maybe Samsung's latest strategy to compete with Apple is stealing dyslexic buyers from them :)
My last 5 Android devices have been Samsung, 1 tablet & 4 smartphones.
I believe that the S6 didn't sell as well as it might because it is too like a Fruity device, with a fixed battery & no SD Card slot.
I won't change my phone until the SG Note 5 is announced, but if, as I fear it too has a fixed battery & no SD slot then it's goodbye Samsung.
I know my Galaxy is the first and LAST Samsung product I'll buy. Battery life sucks big time. I unplug from the charger in the morning and check my email over breakfast. You can literally hear the battery sucking wind. I'm at 90% just after morning email check. My wife's iPhone and my iPad live forever on a charge.
If it is a fault in his battery that's one thing, but if it is the bloatware's fault then "install CyanogenMod" is not a reasonable answer. 98% of people don't even know what it is, much less be willing to install it to fix something that is broken as shipped (if it is the bloatware)
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