Despite the continued global march of the Chinese smartphones, here in the US the battle for the title comes down to Samsung or Apple. These two companies account for 66 percent of smartphone sales.
In the latest Kantar Worldpanel article Samsung’s Galaxy S7/S7 Edge accounted for 16 percent of recent sales while the Apple iPhone 6s/6s Plus accounted for 14.6 percent. That’s not surprising given the fact that the iPhone 6s/6s Plus is nearly a year old while the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge has only been out for about four months.
The good news for Samsung is that its iconic Galaxy Note line will see a refresh in a few weeks with the Galaxy Note 7 that is sure to bring in a healthy does of sales. There are plenty of rumors and images of the next Apple iPhone, but we don’t know when it will be announced so Samsung keeps the advantage for now.
Both the Galaxy S7 Edge and Apple iPhone 6s Plus are excellent smartphones, but as an owner of both my SIM spends much more time in the S7 Edge due to its fast charging, wireless charging, incredible camera, more compact size, and water resistance.
It’s interesting to read the Kantar data that shows just five percent of Samsung purchases came from iPhone switchers while 14 percent of iPhone purchasers switched from Samsung. The majority of current Samsung and iPhone owners do and plan to upgrade their current devices.
While the Samsung and Apple story is interesting to watch in the US, both of these companies need to keep a close eye to the east as compelling low-cost smartphones launch in the US from Motorola, OnePlus, ZTE, Huawei, and others.
I usually purchase the high end smartphones, but find little reason to do so after using the Huawei P9 and OnePlus 3 over the past month. There may not be many more stories where Apple and Samsung are the headliners.
Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/cell-phones/rss.xml