Apple nabs smartphone top spot from Samsung, but for how long?

There is some requirement for volume - you need to sustain enough market share for your device to at least be a plausible option in terms of 'knowing other people with it'.

Although other than iMessage most of the comms channels people use are pretty open...

Actually, I think revenue is the most important number for the public to figure out who is the biggest in sales. Profit is nice for the company and its shareholders, but revenue is what counts.

If it was unit sales, Apple could easily make a deal with Huawei or some other companies to build gazillions of cheap phones, make them look like iPhones, and sell them under the Apple name, and Apple could probably double its unit sales. With a tiny increase of revenue, and zero increase in profits.

Last thing on my mind when choosing a phone is how profitable the device is for the manufacturer.

I care about what I get for my money.

Obviously Apple had the lion's share of profit

All their phones are high end, whereas Samsung also sells low and mid priced phones. I haven't seen figures for smartphone profits for a few years, last time it was something like Apple making 90%, Samsung making 20%, and everyone else collectively losing money.

That's been obvious for a few years now. Microsoft did a 'start over' in mobile that orphaned old devices one too many times, plus pissed off their partners by buying Nokia and making their own devices (sort of like Google is doing with Pixel, but it is easier to get away with once you already have 80% of the market instead of only 2%)

Re: Never is a long time

If iPhones were overpriced, people wouldn't buy them. Since Apple sold more phones in this quarter than any other company, they are clearly _not_ overpriced.

They are expensive. Apple doesn't make or sell cheap phones. Expensive is different from "overpriced". And sorry, if Apple is a niche, then surely Samsung is a niche, and everyone else is even more of a niche, if Apple sells more than anyone else (and even when they don't sell more, at least reasonably close to whoever sells most).

"Christmas helped Apple" is interesting. So iPhones are the choice if you want to give someone a phone as a present and want them to enjoy it.

Re: Never is a long time

Apple outsold Samsung two years ago, with the iPhone 6 launch. Possibly they might be able to do it again this fall with the iPhone 8, but there are a lot of variables (will they be production limited, will Samsung continue to lose low end share in China & India) In the end beating Samsung by a bit for just one quarter makes nice headlines, but it is meaningless. Samsung easily outsells Apple for the full year.

As for the idea that a more expensive iPhone won't sell, don't be ridiculous. First of all, if there's a new "Pro" grade above Plus, it will be $100 more if Apple follows their typical pattern. Add $200 for the top end storage and it'll be over $1000, but only $100 more than a high end Plus. Apple sold millions of 6, 6s and 7 Pluses at the top memory config for $949, so I doubt an extra $100 will put people off (unless you believe the $1000 barrier is psychologically important) assuming the Pro is enough of a step up.

Not true. Most of the Android phones sold in China don't have any of the Googly bits, just the open source stuff. If you are worried that the open source parts of Android are US, then maybe we should all be worried that Finland is taking over the software world thanks to Linus Torvalds :)

Re: Profits beat market share

Depends on where you make your money. Obviously Apple wants to be in the position they are, and Google wants Android to be in the position it is. All the Android OEMs are the ones who are caught in the middle, competing with each other to the point they all lose money except Samsung, but not getting any of the after sales revenue that Google does.

Re: Profits beat market share

Your thinking is in the stone ages. Apple makes the bigger profits from their app store sales and services offerings. All you morons were counting them out last summer, and of course sammy fucked up the release of the Note 7, just like they were meant to. Here's why; they were trying to beat Apple instead of putting out a super high quality smartphone. End of story. They mimic Apple down to the hardware home button they used to properly do on-screen, so when you tilted your device the home button would still be in the correct position. Remember those days? Little stuff like that they threw out to be more like Apple. Well, look what happened. They just handed Apple the holiday season, and now you angry windows phone dorks are crowing everything except what is plainly true to anyone with any knowledge of the industry knows; Apple phones are expensive because they take much more care in every aspect of the design to the extent of having a walled garden, but one that works well and seem to be very profitable. The phones are just a vehicle to sell services and apps, little more. But when you known good hardware, that's what you have. It's a solid product that makes windows phone boys super super mad, because they know everyone has one and their pleas to try alternatives are met with laughter. You have Pixel, or an iPhone. There is no other valid offering anywhere that is remotely usable or secure as the two obvious choices. Still, you can get those nifty retro Nokias and show us all up! We'll be so sad, and you can rejoice again! You went backwards! Yeah!