AAPL Apple Inc

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles 

In the continuing smartphone battle between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., the week leading up to Christmas didn't provide much joy for either.

On Wednesday, Yahoo Inc.'s Flurry Analytics, issued its annual report on the most popular smartphones and tablets activated world-wide between Dec. 19 and Dec. 25. As in year's past, Apple and Samsung devices were activated far more than gadgets from rivals, such as Huawei, LG, Amazon and Motorola. But the lack of a dramatic rise or fall this year for either giant is a testament to their missed 2016 opportunities, analysts say.

Apple products accounted for 44% of activated smartphones and tablets in the period, while Samsung's smartphones and tablets accounted for 21%, Flurry said. (Flurry doesn't monitor sales, but rather device activity, so the numbers tend to differ from sales figures.) That is a dip for Apple, which claimed 49.1% for a similar period in 2015. For Samsung, it was a bump up from 19.8%.

While Apple's slide continued from 2014 -- when Apple devices represented 51.3% of activations, while Samsung's accounted for 17.7% -- it is a surprise given the massive financial and reputational hit Samsung took in the second half of 2016 with the global recall of millions of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones.

Samsung sales didn't plummet because the majority of Android loyalists are already entrenched in Samsung products, said Stephen Baker, the primary hardware analyst at the NPD Group Inc. tech industry research firm. "Most of those who bought or wanted to buy a Note 7 opted for a different high-end Galaxy phone," Mr. Baker said.

Huawei accounted for 3% of new-device activations in Flurry's report, while Amazon.com Inc., LG Electronics Inc., BBK Electronics Co.'s Oppo, Xiaomi Corp. and Lenovo Group Inc.'s Motorola Mobility each had a 2% share, and Alphabet Inc.'s Google Pixel phones were missing from the report altogether.

"Samsung was able to fend off other Android competition, and Apple, too, thanks to Apple's own lack of a wowing product this year," Mr. Baker said.

The iPhone 7 did produce strong sales for Apple, but Apple hasn't said yet whether or not the sale will be enough to reverse its first annual revenue decline in 15 years, which the company reported in October. This was the first year Apple decided not to report its first-weekend iPhone sales figures, leaving analysts to wonder if this was due to weak sales at launch. Apple, for its part, has said that first-weekend sales numbers aren't as relevant as they were in the past.

"Apple has the strongest ecosystem, with its hardware, software and app and content stores," said consumer tech and mobile industry consultant Chetan Sharma. "IPhone users looking for an upgrade stick with Apple. But in a year when Samsung dropped the ball in a huge way," he said, Apple "didn't have a phone with a compelling enough feature set to lure Samsung owners away."

Mr. Sharma and Mr. Baker agreed that both Apple and Samsung made mistakes this year that cost them growth. "The timing couldn't have been worse for Samsung and it couldn't have been better for Apple. But the truth is neither company capitalized this year," Mr. Sharma said.

Neither Apple nor Samsung responded to requests to comment on Flurry's report.

Write to Nathan Olivarez-Giles at Nathan.Olivarez-giles@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 29, 2016 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)

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