Lackluster Holiday For Apple, Samsung -- WSJ
December 29 2016 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
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)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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