Eternal Conflict
Shinhan Investment Corporation said on Sept. 14 that Samsung Electronics’ smartphone shipments for this year are estimated to increase by 0.95 percent from a year earlier to 318 million units, while Apple’s are likely to jump 19 percent to 230 million.
Samsung Electronics’ shipments increased by 131 percent year-on-year in 2012, but the rate of increase dropped to 44.4 percent in 2013 and 0 percent in 2014. Apple’s rate of year-on-year increase was 49.4 percent in 2012, 12.5 percent in 2013, and 26.1 percent in 2014.
The shipments of these companies depend on their latest flagship products, that is, the Galaxy Note 5 and the iPhone 6S. “The shipments are unlikely to show a meaningful increase for the time being,” said an industry insider, adding, “To have an impact on the market, Samsung Electronics will have to increase the supply of high-end phones, even though mid-end handsets still take up a large portion of its production volume.”
In the meantime, the two companies are coming up with different pricing strategies, with the global smartphone market increasingly revolving around budget smartphones. Specifically, Samsung Electronics is cutting the prices of its products, whereas Apple is looking to enhance consumer loyalty by means of the new installment plan, dubbed the iPhone Upgrade Program, while maintaining the relatively high prices of iPhones. The iPhone 6S, which was unveiled last week, is available for the same price as the iPhone 6. On the contrary, the 32 GB version of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 5, released a month ahead, is available at US$696 in the United States on a non-subscription basis. Last year, its Galaxy Note 4 predecessor was priced at US$826.