Comparisons Between Samsung And Apple

Apple is a global company represented in many parts of the world, but born in the United States by computer wizards by the names of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who founded the company back in 1976 (Capon, 2008). The organization deals with the design and sale of computer hardware, software and offers tech support to its customers. Examples of the hardware the company manufactures and sells include mobile phones, personal computers, iPads, tablets and iTunes with associated brands, like the MacBook and iPhones that represent Apple’s driving force towards its success. It is recognized as a brand leader in consumer electronics by the world in terms of quality and customer satisfaction and despite the wide product range, Apple manages each product in a distinct way that is a single business unit (Mittan, 2010).

For the fiscal year (FY) 2013 fourth quarter (Q4) Apple posted revenue of 37.5 billion and quarterly profits of 7.52 billion. Figure 1 shows financial data for three consecutive years from 2011-2013. See Appendix Figure 1 for financial details. Net sales for FY 2013 were $170,910 million an increase of $14,402 million from FY 2012 (Apple reports, 2013). Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones, 14.1 million iPads, and 4.9 million Macs during 2013 Q4. Apples App Stores’ sales exceeded $10 billion for FY 2013. App Store customers downloaded almost three billion apps in December 2013 making it the most successful month in App Store history (App store sales, 2013).

Apple and Samsung are the major competitors in the smartphone field. We would, like to discuss why they’re leading and conclude which one is better. In the electronic industry these two companies fight are considered as the highest massive ever. They mainly clash for brand image and brand reputation but any consequences regarding this fight, the impact should be faced by both these companies in terms of brand reputation loss and also the loss of huge amount of money over the litigations We would like to discuss the following,

The multi billion-dollar corporation, Apple Inc., designs and manufactures some of today’s highest technological gizmos and gadgets. Among their best known products are the Apple and Macintosh computers, iPods, iTunes, iPhones and iPads. Apple is one of the most powerful and influential high tech companies in the world. The success of Apple Inc. stems from the innovation and visions of co-founder and entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, the excellence of the stylish, user-friendly products, and the ability to create innovative products that consumer’s desire.

In 2013, Samsung surpassed Apple gaining more profit than them in the second quarter. In the same year, Samsung reported a profit of 27.06 billion dollar (27.74 trillion won) making it the highest earning company in each quarter after they passed Apple. On the other hand, Apple Inc. sold 442.35 million unit in the same time span. It sold 72.3 million unit in 2011, 125.04 million unit in 2012, and almost 150.3 million unit in 2013. The company recorded a profit of approximately 37 billion dollar in 2013. The difference between the profits of Samsung and Apple is that in the first quarter Apple had a net profit of 13.1 million dollar while Samsung had a net profit of only 7.2 million dollar.

Further, in 2012 net income increased to $41,733,000,000. This shows that while the industry was declining, Apple was able to stay strong and profitable.

Nowadays, Apple has positioned itself to be an innovator in the personal computer industry and Apple has developed by offering modern products compared to its competitors. According to Apple’s mission statement last year, “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.” (Business Management,

Smartphone market is fast-moving and very high competitive due to intense competition between two big smartphone producers, Apple and Samsung. At the beginning, Apple dominated this market solely by introducing a new innovative type of smartphone by Steve Jobs that has revolutionized people lifestyle and mobile industry. A few years after launching iPhone, a new fast following competitor, Samsung came into this market, and their sales have outperformed Apple from the year 2011 (According to Chart A1 in Appendix). In term of developing their product, Samsung has created its products by following Apple’s technology since the beginning of producing its smartphone, therefore there are many patent lawsuits between them. Since Steve Job passed away, Apple has continued to develop its core competence, which is an innovation of new type of smartphone that could help them to take back their market share from its rival, Samsung. Nonetheless, the competition between Apple and Samsung will still continue intensively in the future.

Samsung is a South Korean company founded in 1938 that produces electronic communication devices of different types. Samsung has been expanding its product variation for a long time constantly increasing its market share value and annual revenues. In fact, it is considered as a classic product-driven brand and one of the largest smartphone manufacturers by unit sales, and that is the product I am especially interested in. Being equipped with a leading Android technology, Samsung smartphones are characterized by high quality, advanced designs and good prices. Moreover, the company offers a good chain of smartphone applications and accessories, as well as other electronic products as laptops, tablets, and netbooks

In today’s world people are always on their phones no matter where they are located. They also always want the latest phone that has come out, Weather it’s the iPhone X or the Samsung Galaxy S8. Samsung and iPhone are the largest phone companies in the united states. Some users like Apple better than they like the Samsung phone for many reasons or vice versa. So, what exactly are the phone users looking for when they want to buy a phone? What catches their eye with Apple vs Samsung products?

With Apple being so far ahead of their competition, the only problem one can foresee in Apple’s future is how long they can sustain such innovation before they plateau. Apple does a phenomenal job at releasing their innovative products before their competition, but if their innovation cannot hold steady, this may lead to changes in demand for their products considerably. This can be seen with their release of the iPhone, the first successful touch screen cellular phone. Although people swarmed to the iPhone when it was first released because of its advanced technology, as the years have passed, other similar designs, including those with android and windows based operating systems, have drawn a considerable portion of the market. A clear representation of Apple’s attempt to regain some of this market can be seen when the iPhone was released to Verizon Wireless’ customers in

Apple has always been something of a trendsetter in the tech space. Its product history since Steve Jobs’s return in 1997 gives us a solid list of examples to choose from, from its very first iPod, to Apple’s PowerBook (and later MacBook) lines, to the iPhone and the iPad. Apple’s history is dominated by products that existed before Apple had a crack at them - but it was Apple who simplified them, made them appealing on a much wider scale, and ultimately made them objects of desire for the masses.

Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. was the first of a series of ongoing lawsuits between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics regarding the design of smartphones and tablet computers; between them, the companies made more than half of smartphones sold worldwide as of July 2012.[1] In the spring of 2011, Apple began litigating against Samsung in patent infringement suits, while Apple and Motorola Mobility were already engaged in a patent war on several fronts.[2] Apple's multinational litigation over technology patents became known as part of the mobile device patent wars: extensive litigation in fierce competition in the global market for consumer

In 2012 quarterly report, Samsung, known as the major player in mobile phone industry, stood as the fourth in world phone sales and its profit have smashed for the fourth quarter. Following this, the 2014 quarterly report still showed a decline in revenue and sales, as BBC News states that the net profit dropped to 23.4 trillion won, which is a 27% fall from 30.5trillion won in 2013. On the other hand, Samsung’s competitor Xiaomi marked itself as the top smartphone company of the year 2014 in China with a 12.5 percent market share, beating Samsung that had positioned itself the first in sales. Xiaomi put out low-mid range priced phone as a strategy with a fairly high quality specs and design for its price, threatening all other competitors.

Now, Samsung can be sure that they are one of the major mobile phone markets in the world; the company sold most mobile phone in 2012, accounting for 22 percent of the market. Samsung’s mobile market success starts when the company brings out the idea of brand new touch-screen smartphone in 2008. Samsung releases their first Galaxy S Series, S stand for success, in March 2010 which was the company’s first actual attempt to take on the iPhone; iPhone was the most popular and number one selling smartphone in that time. Later, Samsung becomes success at growing its company as a major mobile company by launching Galaxy S2, S3, and