Apple Samsung Technology War

Samsung is set to capture almost 40% of the global handset market (up from 29% in 2012), thanks to its new flagship smartphone S4. While iPhone is only set to release the latest iPhone 5 by Q3 2013, Samsung has already showcased its new flagship S4 and will roll out the new phone at more than 350 telecom carriers around the world by May 2013. This will give Samsung a leg up in its fight against Apple in the smartphone market. Samsung has captured the smartphone market by rapidly introducing new and innovative phones at short intervals. It is being able to offer better smartphones at the same or cheaper price than its principal competitors.

Read on GWI how Tablets become Ground Zero of Technology Wars as Smartphone becomes Samsung and Apple Duopoly.

One of the main reasons behind Samsung’s success is its integrated hardware model. The company makes its own memory, processors and displays. In fact it is the biggest supplier of components to Apple and other smartphone companies. Samsung is the biggest memory company in the world and amongst the top display manufacturers as well. Its huge semiconductor fabs has also made it one of the biggest foundries as well. The company does not face any component shortages like Qualcomm or Apple. It is also able to use the latest component technologies in its phones (AMOLED etc.). This gives it a bit edge over other phone suppliers. While other companies would face trouble in managing such a lot of moving parts, this South Korean conglomerate has managed such a diverse business quite adroitly till now.

Samsung still dependent on Google’s Android

While Samsung continues to rule the roost for now, it faces danger from its high dependence on Google’s Android operating system. Google is set to come out with newer smartphones as its Motorola unit reorganizes and comes out with better models. Samsung also faces a threat from the new Chinese competitors like Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo who are coming out with smartphones almost as good as Samsung using Android. While Samsung is trying to defuse this threat by putting more emphasis on software (Tizen and Smart Play), I am not sure it can transform into a software heavyweight.

DigiTimes

Samsung will extend its mobile handset market share lead over its nearest competitor to 11 percentage points in 2013, thanks to the launch of its latest Galaxy S handset, IHS iSuppli said in a new report.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 introduced last month has not yet hit market shelves, but IHS already provided an optimistic outlook for Samsung’s handset market share lead in 2013.

IHS iSuppli: Top-5 handset vendors in 2012 (ranking by unit shipments)
Rank	Company	2011	2012
1	Samsung	24%	29%
2	Nokia	30%	24%
3	Apple	7%	10%
4	ZTE	6%	6%
5	LG	6%	4%

Source: IHS iSuppli, compiled by Digitimes, March 2013