Samsung should fight Apple instead of Chinese manufacturers

Samsung's Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are indeed eye-catching, and the market response is reportedly good. This move is considered the beginning of Samsung's recovery. It is particularly noteworthy that in the fourth quarter of last year, the US online survey platform Survey M&111nkey conducted a customer loyalty questionnaire survey on 5,000 global electrical and electronic and software suppliers. Samsung Electronics surpassed Apple and ranked first in the "customer brand loyalty" of smartphones. The score reached 35, while Apple's score was 28. However, the scores of both companies were higher than the industry average (19).

However, it is worth noting that although Samsung beat Apple in customer loyalty, its performance in customer service satisfaction is inferior to Apple. Apple received 41% positive reviews, while Samsung received only 25% positive reviews. In fact, combined with the feedback from users around us who use Samsung phones and the impression given by Samsung products, this evaluation is basically reasonable. After all, Samsung used to pursue the "sea of ​​machines" strategy, with a wide range of mobile phone categories, a wide market coverage, and a large user base. However, Samsung now emphasizes going to two extremes. On the one hand, it continues to fight against Apple's iPhone in the high-end market, and on the other hand, it competes with the Chinese mobile phone army in the mid-to-low-end market. However, for the latter, Samsung's performance is obviously not strong. On the other hand, in the high-end market, with the launch of Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung has somewhat saved some face.

Moreover, Samsung Electronics has successfully replaced Qualcomm and become the processor OEM for Apple iPhone, the main competitor in the smartphone industry. The slimming down of the smartphone product line will also greatly help Samsung Electronics' recovery in the mobile phone market. Samsung Electronics' latest financial report recently released shows that although the company's operating profit will still decline in the first quarter of this year, the decline has begun to slow down.

Analysts at market research firm IDC believe that the Galaxy S6 is currently popular among consumers, which will make it more difficult for Chinese companies that want to enter the high-end smartphone market. IDC also pointed out in a previous report that fierce competition in both the high-end and low-end smartphone markets has been eroding Samsung Electronics' position as the world's best-selling smartphone brand. Samsung Electronics' biggest difficulties currently come from China, as the company is caught in a bitter battle with Huawei, Xiaomi and other companies in China's low-end smartphone market. Although the growth rate of China's smartphone market has begun to slow, market analysts expect that the market in densely populated developing countries such as India and Southeast Asia will begin to flourish. Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have also gone abroad and entered more emerging markets to begin to erode Samsung's overseas market share, especially in the mid- and low-end product lines, and have launched a more comprehensive competition with Samsung.

Perhaps for Samsung, continuing to take the high-end route and fighting against Apple is the way to go. After all, we see that the global share of iPhone is declining. According to the latest data from research company Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, in the first three months ending February this year, the sales share of iPhone declined in major markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany, but the sales share in China increased to 27.6%. Among them, the market share in the United States: from 47.7% to 38.8%; the market share in Japan: from 60.2% to 49.8%; the market share in Germany: from 20.9% to 17.4%; the market share in the United Kingdom: from 42.0% to 38.6%; the market share in France: from 23.0% to 21.6%. The performance in the Chinese market is still very dazzling, with the Chinese market share: from 17.9% to 27.6%. This is also the best explanation for why Cook cares so much about the Chinese market, right?

In particular, China Mobile's contribution to Apple is obvious, because among all iPhone users, China Mobile's users account for 59%. This is also why Apple negotiated with China Mobile many times and finally won the introduction of China Mobile. Of course, it is not ruled out that China Mobile is the largest leading manufacturer in China's 4G launch. With China's official issuance of FDD licenses, China Unicom and China Telecom's recovery in the high-end market will surely further stimulate Apple's iPhone to continue to be popular in the Chinese market.

For Samsung, it is obviously difficult to win back the Chinese market directly, because it is closely surrounded by Apple in front and Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo, Coolpad, ZTE and other manufacturers behind. It is very difficult for Samsung to quickly regain lost ground. However, in the global market, with the good market performance and expectations of Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung can definitely compete with Apple again. It is reported that Samsung Electronics has sold 20 million Galaxy S6 to global operators.

In addition, Samsung's business in the semiconductor market is obviously also very important at present, and its advantages are quite obvious. It defeated Apple's foundry manufacturers such as TSMC to obtain the foundry of Apple A9, which also shows that Samsung's advantages in technology are more prominent. As smartphone manufacturers purchase more and more memory chips and outsource the manufacturing business of companies, Samsung Electronics will benefit in both directions. Samsung's provision of A9 processors for the next generation of iPhones will help increase the company's profits in the second half of this year. The high-end market is more helpful in boosting the company's performance. Therefore, for Samsung, the basis for a full recovery should still be based on the die-hard Apple iPhone products, which will also be more helpful for Samsung's recovery. In the mid- and low-end markets, Samsung faces too much competition from Chinese manufacturers. On April 8, the Chinese mobile phone army created a Chinese mobile phone festival, which also showed that these emerging mobile phone manufacturers have increasing publicity and marketing capabilities to cater to the market. These are obviously some of the key factors that make it difficult for Samsung to compete with them in emerging markets.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.