Samsung Galaxy S III Steals iPhone's Crown

[ceva321]

Samsung Galaxy S III Steals iPhone's Crown

Samsung Galaxy S III Steals iPhone's Crown - Smb - Mobile/Wireless -

By Eric Zeman InformationWeek
November 08, 2012 12:13 PM


The Samsung Galaxy S III was the best-selling smartphone of the third quarter, said Strategy Analytics. Its data shows Samsung sold 18 million of them during the July - September period. Earlier this month, Samsung announced that it had sold a total of 30 million GSIIIs since the phone went on sale in May.
Looking at Apple's smartphone sales during the same quarter, Strategy Analytics shows that Apple sold 16.2 million iPhone 4S devices. Clearly, Samsung's GSIII beat the iPhone 4S by nearly 2 million units, giving it the smartphone crown -- at least for a while.


"Samsung's Galaxy S3 has proven wildly popular with consumers and operators across North America, Europe and Asia," said Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics. "However, the Galaxy S3's position as the world's best-selling smartphone model is likely to be short-lived."
Why? The iPhone 5, of course. The iPhone 5, which debuted September 21, was probably responsible for the dip in iPhone 4S sales during the latter half of the third quarter as consumers refrained from making purchases until the new device became available. Further, sales of the iPhone 4S probably dropped off a cliff once the iPhone 5 actually reached store shelves.


The Galaxy S III is sold by the top four wireless networks in the U.S., as well as some of the smaller regional players. The iPhone 5 has a similar distribution setup, with the exception being T-Mobile USA, which does not sell the iPhone.
"The Apple iPhone 5 has gotten off to a solid start already with an estimated 6.0 million units shipped globally during Q3 2012," continued Mawston. "We expect the new iPhone 5 to out-ship Samsung's Galaxy S3 in the coming fourth quarter of 2012 and Apple should soon reclaim the title of the world's most popular smartphone model."

I wouldn't feel bad for Samsung, though. Late last month the company launched sales of the Galaxy Note II in the U.S. and other countries. The Note II is already off to a strong start around the world. Combined, sales of the GSIII and Note II will outpace Apple's iPhone 5. In fact, the Note II has already reached sales of 3 million in just a few weeks.
As it has been all year, Samsung and Apple will continue to battle one another for smartphone supremacy into 2013 and beyond.

 

[motoracer1486]

I'm so tired of seeing all of these S3 vs i5 bantering.

 

[n4zty]

Haha good post that should make the iphone fad sheeps think about why they went with an iphone 5 device if it does the same as the previous versions. in conclusion while apple continues to re-produce the same product but with very lil changes the iphone fans continue to fall for the same trick.... the irony!

 

[streetkilln]

I'm so tired of seeing all of these S3 vs i5 bantering.

iphone 5 vs galaxy note 2

 

[SolidSnake117]

yup. i'm getting bored of the whole S3 vs i5... it's quite obvious that the S3 is waaaay out the i5's league in mobile computing.

 

[BynoUK]

It's nice to see the phone I chose is selling well but personally I'm not bothered whether it sells better than other phones or not.

I like it and that's all that matters to me.

 

[SUroot]

I like to know it sells enough to have a good development community behind it. I'd be happier if it compromised that with not having everyone I sit next to on the bus having the same phone though. Thats why I wanted the Huawei ascend D Quad. The S3 was my reserve choice.

 

[SMALBA]

I've only had mine two weeks and I love it. Only thing is that I have yet to see this phone in the wild. All my friends are I phone lovers and a few have old androids. I'm still waiting to meet another s3 owner!

 

[kingjavs]

I've only had mine two weeks and I love it. Only thing is that I have yet to see this phone in the wild. All my friends are I phone lovers and a few have old androids. I'm still waiting to meet another s3 owner!

Im on the same boat! haha

 

[Mostly Harmless]

I've only had mine two weeks and I love it. Only thing is that I have yet to see this phone in the wild. All my friends are I phone lovers and a few have old androids. I'm still waiting to meet another s3 owner!

There are tons of people with the phone. On the train the other day I notice more people using S3's then iPhones around where I was sitting. I wouldn't read too much into that article, the iPhone 5 came out just at the end of the quarter stealing some of the 4s's thunder.

 

[davoid]

I like to know it sells enough to have a good development community behind it. I'd be happier if it compromised that with not having everyone I sit next to on the bus having the same phone though. Thats why I wanted the Huawei ascend D Quad. The S3 was my reserve choice.

It's annoying that although lots of other people have got it, none of my friends have it so I don't have anyone to do the s-beam thing with. Totally agree about the development community. This phone was a brilliant choice in that respect.

 

[Hogan773]

There are tons of people with the phone. On the train the other day I notice more people using S3's then iPhones around where I was sitting. I wouldn't read too much into that article, the iPhone 5 came out just at the end of the quarter stealing some of the 4s's thunder.

The iPhone 5 has such a lack of revolutionary or even evolutionary style that it will be pretty hard to tell with a glance on the train whether someone is using a 5 or a 4S, especially if it's in a case where you can't tell the thickness or back material.

 

[Hogan773]

It's annoying that although lots of other people have got it, none of my friends have it so I don't have anyone to do the s-beam thing with. Totally agree about the development community. This phone was a brilliant choice in that respect.

You've been watching too many TV commercials

Everywhere I go, I see groups of good looking (and just the right amount of hip), well dressed people all standing around holding their phones up to each other, over and over, "S-Beaming" lots of totally cool stuff to each other. They seem totally happy and hip and cool doing it, too. Before I got an S3 I was totally jealous because my old phone wouldn't allow me to walk up to this group of coolsters and bump phones with them too, bringing me into their inner circle of totally cool and hip electronic sharing of awesome pictures or songs or whatever else might be really awesomely cool.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

It's amazing - the S3 is the best phone I've ever used.

What's amazing about this is that the S3 is among a sea of top Android phones, and it still outsells the iPhone - a singular top tier phone on a single platform.

Android / Samsung rocks!!!!!!!!!

 

[ravenas]

I love hearing that the phone I chose is the most popular because it means more accessories, apps and development to support my phone choice. Also I really hate the iPhone and all the Apple hype that surrounds it. of course as usual any article that says Apple is being defeated has to come with a caveat saying that's only temporary or some other lame excuse. I knew a lot of people that were waiting for the iPhone 5 to be released in order to decide which phone and wanted to get. Pretty much all of them chose the Samsung because they wanted a bigger screen and all the other cool features of Android. iPhone 5 did not offer them enough bells and whistles to be significantly different from the iPhone 4s. In my circle people either stayed with their iPhone 4s or bought a Samsung Galaxy s3.

It will be interesting to see how the fourth quarter sales turn out for both devices. No doubt iPhone 5 sales will be up but will they cannibalize the Galaxy s3 sales to a significant level. Also how do the Galaxy Note 2 sales affect the Galaxy s3. if the numbers show a massive drop for the Samsung phones and a massive increase for iPhones one could say people really were just waiting for the iPhone 5. But if the numbers are just slightly off, then one could say it was the Apple fanatics bumping up iPhone 5 sales. Apple fanatics being does to buy every new Apple product release out of loyalty to the company. Then we have to look for the first quarter sales of 2013 to see how each phone does on a level playing field. No doubt the Christmas season will see a lot of phone sales.

My nieces and nephews are an interesting barometer for which phones are considered cool. Several of their peers have iPhones, but most of them are lusting after the Samsung phones. All that advertising Samsung has done has made the product look very cool in a teenager's eyes.

 

[ceva321]

^^^

Ditto

 

[AirIck]

I traded in an iPhone4 (1.5 years) for the s3 and from this consumer's standpoint I will say there's no reason to feel real smug that you own a vastly superior product. As motoracer1486 said the iPhone v Droid banter is tired and I hate adding to it but I frankly had a better day-to-day usage experience w/ my iPhone even though it was on AT&T GSM. My initial (2 month) thoughts on s3:

* The battery life is abyssmal
* S-voice is inferior to even pre-Siri voice tools on the iPhone
* The text prediction is frustrating (is swype ******ed??)
* No music controls on lock screen
* Inability to manage contacts if you have activesync AND gmail accounts
* Multiple pictures come as slide shows so you can't use them as pictures
* iPhones hang once a year and need a reset. I have to pull the battery on my s3 once a week to get it to recover (does it run Windows '95??)

Now those are the negatives and I of course am enjoying many positives (not being handcuffed to iTunes store, etc) but unless you owned an iPhone and truly used it for a long time I don't think you can fairly compare the two products.

If I could trade back I probably would. I also think with some more tinkering I'll be happier w/ droid long term. But I'll never pretend the s3 is perfect just as I'd never pretend that iPhone doesn't have some serious drawbacks and limitations.

 

[Hogan773]

I traded in an iPhone4 (1.5 years) for the s3 and from this consumer's standpoint I will say there's no reason to feel real smug that you own a vastly superior product. As motoracer1486 said the iPhone v Droid banter is tired and I hate adding to it but I frankly had a better day-to-day usage experience w/ my iPhone even though it was on AT&T GSM. My initial (2 month) thoughts on s3:

* The battery life is abyssmal
* S-voice is inferior to even pre-Siri voice tools on the iPhone
* The text prediction is frustrating (is swype ******ed??)
* No music controls on lock screen
* Inability to manage contacts if you have activesync AND gmail accounts
* Multiple pictures come as slide shows so you can't use them as pictures
* iPhones hang once a year and need a reset. I have to pull the battery on my s3 once a week to get it to recover (does it run Windows '95??)

Now those are the negatives and I of course am enjoying many positives (not being handcuffed to iTunes store, etc) but unless you owned an iPhone and truly used it for a long time I don't think you can fairly compare the two products.

If I could trade back I probably would. I also think with some more tinkering I'll be happier w/ droid long term. But I'll never pretend the s3 is perfect just as I'd never pretend that iPhone doesn't have some serious drawbacks and limitations.

Wow - I've never had to pull my battery to recover......ever (touch wood)

 

[Covart]

I traded in an iPhone4 (1.5 years) for the s3 and from this consumer's standpoint I will say there's no reason to feel real smug that you own a vastly superior product. As motoracer1486 said the iPhone v Droid banter is tired and I hate adding to it but I frankly had a better day-to-day usage experience w/ my iPhone even though it was on AT&T GSM. My initial (2 month) thoughts on s3:

* The battery life is abyssmal
* S-voice is inferior to even pre-Siri voice tools on the iPhone
* The text prediction is frustrating (is swype ******ed??)
* No music controls on lock screen
* Inability to manage contacts if you have activesync AND gmail accounts
* Multiple pictures come as slide shows so you can't use them as pictures
* iPhones hang once a year and need a reset. I have to pull the battery on my s3 once a week to get it to recover (does it run Windows '95??)

Now those are the negatives and I of course am enjoying many positives (not being handcuffed to iTunes store, etc) but unless you owned an iPhone and truly used it for a long time I don't think you can fairly compare the two products.

If I could trade back I probably would. I also think with some more tinkering I'll be happier w/ droid long term. But I'll never pretend the s3 is perfect just as I'd never pretend that iPhone doesn't have some serious drawbacks and limitations.

I came from the iphone. Had every one of them prior to the 4S. I had to jailbreak every one from iOS 3. 0 on, just to get the phone to do basic functions. The iphone still suffers from Apple's forced sandboxing. I even made some Cydia tweaks for the iphone and ipad.
That said, I can tell by your comments that you are not Android savy. The S3 is better than every iphone and in every way for someone that has a basic understanding of Android. And the iPhone is better than any Android phone if you want an OS that maintains a lot of the phones functionality for you.

I have owned my S3 since pre-ordering it. I have never had to pull the battery, except to put a fresh one in to put me back up to 100 % power. The iphone 5 i pre-ordered for my wife came out of the box with dents, a heat stain on the back (possible welding issue?), the screen had a pixel fragment onthe 123 button, so a black line flickered on and off on that button and it was very laggy when a long list with images were displayed. We returned that pos phone for an S3. Wife couldn't be happier. We will nevet buy another iDevice again. Since Jobs died, QA has declined significantly at Apple.

Your comments on the battery in the S3 was either due to a bad battery (which you can easily replace for under 20 bucks) or user error. Let me know when you can get an iphone to keep the screen on at 100 % brightness for nearly 5 hours straight, while using gps and the web.

S-Voice is crap. But I use Google Now on my S3 and it makes Siri look like a speak and spell.

Text prediction is based on your keyboard and any data you allow the app to pull, plus your user based dictiinary that you create. The iphones prediction is a complete and utter mess. In fact, it is almost useless.

 

[Covart]

I love hearing that the phone I chose is the most popular because it means more accessories, apps and development to support my phone choice. Also I really hate the iPhone and all the Apple hype that surrounds it. of course as usual any article that says Apple is being defeated has to come with a caveat saying that's only temporary or some other lame excuse. I knew a lot of people that were waiting for the iPhone 5 to be released in order to decide which phone and wanted to get. Pretty much all of them chose the Samsung because they wanted a bigger screen and all the other cool features of Android. iPhone 5 did not offer them enough bells and whistles to be significantly different from the iPhone 4s. In my circle people either stayed with their iPhone 4s or bought a Samsung Galaxy s3.

It will be interesting to see how the fourth quarter sales turn out for both devices. No doubt iPhone 5 sales will be up but will they cannibalize the Galaxy s3 sales to a significant level. Also how do the Galaxy Note 2 sales affect the Galaxy s3. if the numbers show a massive drop for the Samsung phones and a massive increase for iPhones one could say people really were just waiting for the iPhone 5. But if the numbers are just slightly off, then one could say it was the Apple fanatics bumping up iPhone 5 sales. Apple fanatics being does to buy every new Apple product release out of loyalty to the company. Then we have to look for the first quarter sales of 2013 to see how each phone does on a level playing field. No doubt the Christmas season will see a lot of phone sales.

My nieces and nephews are an interesting barometer for which phones are considered cool. Several of their peers have iPhones, but most of them are lusting after the Samsung phones. All that advertising Samsung has done has made the product look very cool in a teenager's eyes.

Look at iphone sales for the last 3 quarters, not just this last quarter. Samsung sales have co tinued to rise, while iphone sales have decreased. In fact, Samsung sold more of just the S3, than all iphones put together last quarter. That is sales of the 3gs, 4, 4S and 5!

Remember, the iphone really only has significant marketshare in the US. In every other part of the world, it is a minor player (save for the UK). The deal with China telecom will probably add a couple million sales for Apple in Q4, but quite frankly, it looks to me like people are bored with ios and the iphone. People were expecting a new design with the iphone 5 and they didn't get it. Why buy it if people can't tell they have the 5? Most of the isheep buy these iphones because they think it is a status symbol and indicates wealth. But Apple will be lucky to sell more than 35 million this quarter, an uptick of roughly 9 million due to the holidays and adding Chinese sales.

 

[GoldenDiamond]

I've only ever done a battery pull once cause I was being stupid and installed a kernel that doesn't work with JB.

Of course everyone has their own experience with their phones.

I personally think this is too small of a picture. Lets look at all phones sold. That is the true range of a company's power.

 

[Wisheezy]

I like to know it sells enough to have a good development community behind it. I'd be happier if it compromised that with not having everyone I sit next to on the bus having the same phone though. Thats why I wanted the Huawei ascend D Quad. The S3 was my reserve choice.

you're really saying that like it's a bad thing?

 

[Shocky]

I'm glad Samsung are successful however everyone seems to have one now, might be be time for a change.

The Sony Yuga looks interesting.

 

[Yatezy]

Look at iphone sales for the last 3 quarters, not just this last quarter. Samsung sales have co tinued to rise, while iphone sales have decreased. In fact, Samsung sold more of just the S3, than all iphones put together last quarter. That is sales of the 3gs, 4, 4S and 5!

Depending on where you get you info source from it actually looks like Apple spanked the S3 in Q3 with sales from the 4s and 5.

Galaxy S III Bests iPhone 4S Sales To Become Best Selling Smartphone Of Q3 2012 | Redmond Pie

But honestly, does it matter? Apple could make a phone that is ten times more powerful, sells ten times more but it's still going to be held back by ios. It's like putting a Ferrari engine in a Robin Reliant

 

[Covart]

Depending on where you get you info source from it actually looks like Apple spanked the S3 in Q3 with sales from the 4s and 5.

Galaxy S III Bests iPhone 4S Sales To Become Best Selling Smartphone Of Q3 2012 | Redmond Pie

But honestly, does it matter? Apple could make a phone that is ten times more powerful, sells ten times more but it's still going to be held back by ios. It's like putting a Ferrari engine in a Robin Reliant

Hey, Jeremy Clarkson said that the Reliant Robin was the best handling car on the planet.