Samsung's mobile profits plunge 64.2% after Apple's iPhone 6 devastates premium Galaxy sales

[Victorious Secret]

It's funny how a $20 nand chip rases the price of the device $100-$300 over the base model.

Absurd, is the proper term for that. I still prefer external storage on my phones where possible but lately it's been a lot of fixed storage devices and idk how to feel about that right now.

If the costs were treated as they should be, it wouldn't be bad (even factoring in yields in high capacity NAND production) but right now everyone uses it as a way to pad the margin by substantial amounts.

[Mew]

True...i live around the same area as you and i find that there are more people using Android phones than iPhones.

 

Why does that even matter at all? So that you can join all the other Android users and bag on Apple users? 

[dadasmithywinkle]

Absurd, is the proper term for that. I still prefer external storage on my phones where possible but lately it's been a lot of fixed storage devices and idk how to feel about that right now.

If the costs were treated as they should be, it wouldn't be bad (even factoring in yields in high capacity NAND production) but right now everyone uses it as a way to pad the margin by substantial amounts.

If they made every phone a standard size, say 128GB, for $100 over the current base, say $300, they'd have much happier customers but would lose profits. Imagine everyone walking around with 128GB phones.

[Clyne]

Why does that even matter at all? So that you can join all the other Android users and bag on Apple users?

Why are you replying then?

I was just saying that i find that i also find that there are more android users in my area than Apple users. 

Just texted a buddy who is the regional GM for t-mobile in my area and android phones out sold apple by 67% so... They seem to be doing great.

[Mew]

If they made every phone a standard size, say 128GB, for $100 over the current base, say $300, they'd have much happier customers but would lose profits. Imagine everyone walking around with 128GB phones.

 

Maybe, the nand supplier can't cope with it? I would imagine that at launch day for say the next iPhone, if it came with 128gb for the base model, then Apple would need tens of million, which will probably be demanding, even on Samsung. Also, most nand in these high end smartphones aren't slow, they're somewhat competitive with high end ssd nand. 

[dadasmithywinkle]

Maybe, the nand supplier can't cope with it? I would imagine that at launch day for say the next iPhone, if it came with 128gb for the base model, then Apple would need tens of million, which will probably be demanding, even on Samsung. Also, most nand in these high end smartphones aren't slow, they're somewhat competitive with high end ssd nand. 

It's true. The 128GB of strage in my 6 Plus is damn fast, even with 25,000 songs on it.

[Mew]

Why are you replying then?

I was just saying that i find that i also find that there are more android users in my area than Apple users. 

 

You talk about the overall android users in your area, not the amount of gs5 and note4 users in your area. This article is about Samsung's profits declining, not how much phones they have sold in the past, such as the gs3 that sold exceptionally well. 

[Clyne]

You talk about the overall android users in your area, not the amount of gs5 and note4 users in your area. This article is about Samsung's profits declining, not how much phones they have sold in the past, such as the gs3 that sold exceptionally well. 

I know that i may have derailed the thread, but i was just leading on to @ttam's post because what he said was true(from what i observed).

[mr moose]

I would love to be a fly on the wall in Samsung's board room (assuming I understood Korean :blink:)

 

For the sake of options and the future growth I hope they get back to the days of the mid 90's when they where dropping serious cash into R+D for the future. .

[Victorious Secret]

I would love to be a fly on the wall in Samsung's board room (assuming I understood Korean :blink:)

For the sake of options and the future growth I hope they get back to the days of the mid 90's when they where dropping serious cash into R+D for the future. .

Samsung Galaxy S1 and S2 Samsung was great to see. It's after that, the age of bloat and greed and getting way too far ahead of themselves.

They got attracted by the profits they saw Apple pulling in and well, the history wrote itself. This perverse need to flood the market with product spread to every facet of their business.

Their TVs, cameras; whatever. The TVs were very bad. I got very pissed off with every tiny variation and iteration and limitation. It got ridiculous during training to hand new salespeople a 20 page folder depicting every little goddamn change in their dozens of TVs every year.

The madness of it was, well, maddening.

[mr moose]

Samsung Galaxy S1 and S2 Samsung was great to see. It's after that, the age of bloat and greed and getting way too far ahead of themselves.

They got attracted by the profits they saw Apple pulling in and well, the history wrote itself. This perverse need to flood the market with product spread to every facet of their business.

Their TVs, cameras; whatever. The TVs were very bad. I got very pissed off with every tiny variation and iteration and limitation. It got ridiculous during training to hand new salespeople a 20 page folder depicting every little goddamn change in their dozens of TVs every year.

The madness of it was, well, maddening.

 

I have a samsung crt monitor and a samsung CRT tv from the 90's,  I really liked them.  To bad today's stuff is all hit and miss.  I went for a walk through a shop the other day, I must have looked at about 40 t.v's and was unimpressed by all of them,  they were either over saturated, had terrible contrast, where pixelated by shit scalars or where simply running screens that where too high resolution for the content. 

 

Same with phones, my desire (2010) is almost to old to use (can't really update it). So I have been looking at phones. Not a single thing I've seen is simple enough. 

[Victorious Secret]

I have a samsung crt monitor and a samsung CRT tv from the 90's, I really liked them. To bad today's stuff is all hit and miss. I went for a walk through a shop the other day, I must have looked at about 40 t.v's and was unimpressed by all of them, they were either over saturated, had terrible contrast, where pixelated by shit scalars or where simply running screens that where too high resolution for the content.

Same with phones, my desire (2010) is almost to old to use (can't really update it). So I have been looking at phones. Not a single thing I've seen is simple enough.

I'd almost go back to a Blackberry like my dad did. Robust build quality, a priority on notifications that you care about and nothing else and still having every app you care to have at your fingertips.

I find the passport funny to hold but oh so intuitive and easy to use. Far easier than everything else I've owned or tested.

[Pomfinator]

For 3 years, Apple let them get away with the big phone gimmick, but after the lackluster S5 and the release of the 6 Plus...well...let's just say that when I went to Hong Kong this year, busy streets that used to be filled with Note 2s and Note 3s are now jammed full of 6 Plus's.  

[mr moose]

I'd almost go back to a Blackberry like my dad did. Robust build quality, a priority on notifications that you care about and nothing else and still having every app you care to have at your fingertips.

I find the passport funny to hold but oh so intuitive and easy to use. Far easier than everything else I've owned or tested.

Blackberry might just be the phone for me yet,  All I really use is the calender, messages and occasional net surfing.  I might go check out the size of them.

[Tataffe]

I'm still amazed how fast these shifts are happening. Even assuming Apple perfectly hit the sweet spot with their new iPhone sizes*, I would not have expected this big shift in market share, but people seem to be flexible ...

 

*) To me, the iPhone 5/5S was the pride of creation

[Victorious Secret]

I'm still amazed how fast these shifts are happening. Even assuming Apple perfectly hit the sweet spot with their new iPhone sizes*, I would not have expected this big shift in market share, but people seem to be flexible ...

*) To me, the iPhone 5/5S was the pride of creation

I think we're going to have the 4.7/5.5 combo for at least another generation if not two, given the previous history on how Apple upgraded their screen sizes and resolutions.

That sweet spot seems to be in constant flux. Before it was 4-4.5. Now it seems like 5-5.5. Who knows if it'll stabilize or change again in a few years. For now, bigger phones are the thing and to be honest, I'm not against that. For now.

Blackberry might just be the phone for me yet, All I really use is the calender, messages and occasional net surfing. I might go check out the size of them.

I think the BlackBerry Classic is going to be a great seller. The keyboard in the traditional form everyone loves but with a thoroughly modern hardware upgrade.

The Passports square ship still throws me off during use.

Also, to people who question the source site for this, of course they have bias. If you find the hyperbole too much, simply look at the raw numbers which come from the financial data the respective companies put out. That's where these numbers are coming from. I didn't post this to become a mud slinging fest and would prefer it didn't, especially after the gong shows of the past few days.

[mr moose]

Also, to people who question the source site for this, of course they have bias. If you find the hyperbole too much, simply look at the raw numbers which come from the financial data the respective companies put out. That's where these numbers are coming from. I didn't post this to become a mud slinging fest and would prefer it didn't, especially after the gong shows of the past few days.

 

For those who question the report, here's the link to the Samsung official PDF.

 

http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/ir/ireventpresentations/earningsrelease/downloads/2012/20150129_conference_eng.pdf

 

EDIT: essentially sales are down on everything except semiconductor/memory.  having said that operating profits are up, so there's still a lot of unexpected shifting in the market and profits margins.

[Victorious Secret]

For those who question the report, here's the link to the Samsung official PDF.

 

http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/ir/ireventpresentations/earningsrelease/downloads/2012/20150129_conference_eng.pdf

 

EDIT: essentially sales are down on everything except semiconductor/memory.  having said that operating profits are up, so there's still a lot of unexpected shifting in the market and profits margins.

Their semi conductors should do well as with memory, given how many orders they must get from every single industry and not just for mobile phones.

[Paragon_X]

I totally agree. Samsung should simplify their lineup. Low mid high and phablet. The S5 is just mediocore, its not bad its unexceptional. My Oneplus One destroys it in any given scenario (with the exception of the camera). But I think the other big problem of samsung is the crappy toucwhiz and all the bloatware they have preinstalled.

I bought the S4 in the summer of 13 I believe and I was amazed (in a bad way) by how many pre installed apps were on it and I had to void my warranty to get it functioning smoothly.

If samsung stops producing a hundred models per year and just start focusing its resources (and get a bunch of new designers) in just 4-5 models, i think they will reclaim their lost ground.

 

[Victorious Secret]

I totally agree. Samsung should simplify their lineup. Low mid high and phablet. The S5 is just mediocore, its not bad its unexceptional. My Oneplus One destroys it in any given scenario (with the exception of the camera). But I think the other big problem of samsung is the crappy toucwhiz and all the bloatware they have preinstalled.

I bought the S4 in the summer of 13 I believe and I was amazed (in a bad way) by how many pre installed apps were on it and I had to void my warranty to get it functioning smoothly.

If samsung stops producing a hundred models per year and just start focusing its resources (and get a bunch of new designers) in just 4-5 models, i think they will reclaim their lost ground.

Agreed. Time will tell if that works however. If they even decide to do it.

[LAwLz]

Wow you sure hate Samsung.

 

I do agree that Samsung needs to simplify their line though. Having ~4 phones should be enough. Low end, mid range, high end and phablet. With a bit of careful planning you might even be able to pull of having a single device that covers both the low and mid range.

 

 

The S5 is just mediocore, its not bad its unexceptional. My Oneplus One destroys it in any given scenario (with the exception of the camera). But I think the other big problem of samsung is the crappy toucwhiz and all the bloatware they have preinstalled.

I bought the S4 in the summer of 13 I believe and I was amazed (in a bad way) by how many pre installed apps were on it and I had to void my warranty to get it functioning smoothly.

If samsung stops producing a hundred models per year and just start focusing its resources (and get a bunch of new designers) in just 4-5 models, i think they will reclaim their lost ground.

The S5 is mediocre today, but it was released almost a year ago. Your OPO does not destroy it in all scenarios (no removable battery, no expandable storage, worse camera, display is worse in some areas, performance is about the same, far worse when it comes to LTE support and so on). That's to be expected though since the OPO is far cheaper (and overall far better value).

 

Samsung has cut down on the amount of bloat and you can remove the things they still have left. It had to go so far that a law had to be passed (in Korea) for them to do it, but now you can uninstall pretty much everything.

 

 

 

Now if only Apple's profits could plummet so some other companies could get a piece of the mobile market. My S4 broke a few weeks ago and the first though in my head was "oh fuck, there is not a good phone on the market, so what should I get now?". Luckily I got it repaired for free (fuck yeah, 2 year warranty) but the only phone I was even mildly considering getting was the OPO. Not because it's a fantastic phone but because it is the cheapest "high end" phone I could get.

[ForsakenLive]

I love android, but I don't consider getting a Samsung device.. Their only decent stuff is the Note series, but thanks to my smallish hands it's not very comfortable (although  the device and idea is pretty good). For android I look at Motorola and HTC.

[NateGSR117]

I think it a good thing when a big company like Samsung profit streak end since it makes them wake up and fall hard on the floor.

[Victorious Secret]

I think it a good thing when a big company like Samsung profit streak end since it makes them wake up and fall hard on the floor.

 

I agree that every company needs this kind of wakeup call, its whether or not Samsung realizes they need to stop diversifying and focus on their core devices which have a strong reason to be great, but are gimped because Samsung is...ugh.

Smart watches is another thing. Samsung could've really pushed Android Wear like no other but what did they chose to do? Lock their watches to only their phones. Don't give me this "oh but workarounds to make it work on other Android devices". No. Normal consumers don't do that stuff! How many more people could've bought your goods if you had, from the start, charged the same amount you'd still have gotten sales AND goodwill by letting your devices work on everything. 

 

[Darkman]

Man... The Note 4 is amazing though... The S5 isn't amazing but not bad either... Wonder what they'll do next.

One word. Touchwiz.