Samsung Is King of Handsets

choi

On Friday, Apr 27, Samsung released its quarterly financial results, following apple and Nokia.

(1) Song Jung-a and Daniel Thomas, Samsung's 93.5m Sales Take Mobile Crown From Nokia; moment of symbolism highlights Finnish group's woes as 14-year reign ends. Financial Times, Apr 28, 2012.

(a) Excerpt in the window of print: 25.4%  Samsung's share of the global phone market

(b) Graphic with the heading "Samsung moves ahead":
(i)
...................................................................Samsung...........Nokia
Global handset shipments, Q1 2012, units and annual % change.......93.5m, up 36%.....82.7m, down 24%
global smartphone shipments, Q1 2012, units and annual % change....44.5m, up 253%....11.9m, down 51%
(ii) A pie chart headlined "Smartphones[;] Global market share Q1 2012 (%)' that shows;
samsung 30.6
apple 24.1
nokia 8.2
others 37.1
(iii) "Share prices[;] Rebased in $ terms" displaying stock prices of Apple, samsung and nokia, with all three starting Jan 1, 2011.

Quote:

"Samsung's handsets have enjoyed increasing popularity, with particukar success in smartphones, where it regained the top spot from Apple as the biggist seller, according to an analysis of company data by Strategy Analytics, the market researcher.

"Samsung has not detailed its smartphone and handset shipments but it sold 93.5m handsets in the first quarter to win a 25.4 per cent share of the global mobile phone market, Strategy Analytics estimated. That surpassed Nokia's 22.5 per cent market share on sales of 87.2m phones, and the 9.5 per cent taken by Apple.

"In the smartphone market, Samsung shipped 44.5m units in the first quarter, taking 30.6 per cent of the market, while Apple shipped 35.1m unites with a 24.1 per cent market share, according to Strategy Analytics.

"The growing popularity of its Galaxy smartphones has helped the South Korean group catch up with the Apple, and the two now control a high proportion of the high-end smartphone market, says analysts at Bernstein, a research house.

"Nokia became the world's largest phonemaker in 1998 when it usurped Motorola, which is being acquired by google

"Samsung yesterday reported a record quarterly net profit of won5.1bn ($4.5bn)

"However, analysts expect samsung to face tougher competition in the third quarter, as Apple launches iPhone 5

My comment:
(a) The report said Samsung "is the world's largest technology company by sales" or revenue. On the other hand, Apple is the world's largest technology company by market capitalization.
(b) There is no need to read the rest.


(2) Samsung Bites Apple. Financial Times, Apr 28, 2012 (in The Lex Column).

Full text except the first two paragraphs:

"Apple still makes a third more revenues from iPhones than Samsung made from all its mobile phone sales during the quarter. But Samsung's reach goes further than Apple's. The Korean company has entry-level smartphone as well as high-end ones. This is exciting because smartphones priced at less than $150 are set to grow three times faster than more expensive models in the next five years, according to IHS, the consultancy.

"The potential problem with lower-end smartphones is their margin. But Samsung is a stickler for costs and makes almost all its own components. So, unlike Apple, which buys phone chips from Samsung, among others, the Korean technology group has tight control. Samsung has also moved some factories to Vietnam in an attempt to defend against structural inflation. And it has serious scale. That is why Samsung's memory chip segment, for example, made operating profits last year, while all its competitors made losses.

"It is not that Samsung does not have a strong brand in higher end smartphones. It has spent $2bn on marketing in the past three months alone, as much as Apple. No wonder its Gallaxy smartphones, along with Apple, control almost the whole top end of US market. Samsung's investors must feel like they are stargazing.

My comment:
(a) It is unclear from the (1) whether smartphones are deemed a subset of handsets.

The two pertinent press releases from Strategy Analytics, both on Apr 27, 2012.
(i) Samsung Overtakes Nokia to Become World's Largest Handset Vendor in Q1 2012.
http://www.strategyanalytics.com ... eviewer&a0=5211
(ii) Samsung and Apple Capture 55 Percent of Global Smartphone Shipments in Q1 2012
http://www.strategyanalytics.com ... eviewer&a0=5212

The (i) clearly indicates handset data include those of smartphones: "Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, 'Nokia's global handset shipments declined a huge 24 percent annually to 82.7 million units in Q1 2012. Volumes were squeezed at both ends, as low-end feature phone shipments in emerging markets stalled and high-end Microsoft Lumia smartphones were unable to offset the rapid decline of Nokia’s legacy Symbian business.

(b) Definitions of "structural inflation".

(i)  Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ... tructural-inflation
("inflation relating to a government's monetary policy rather than to supply of and demand for goods and services")
(ii) Farlex Financial Dictionary
http://financial-dictionary.thef ... tructural+inflation
("Inflation that occurs because a government pursues an excessively loose monetary policy. That is, if a central bank prints too much money or keeps interest rates too low for too long, the value of each unit of currency drops more than it would simply from increased demand")

* TheFreeDictionary.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheFreeDictionary.com
(Owner  Farlex, Inc)