

Sales of the Galaxy S III rose following the unveiling of the iPhone 5 - neya
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57541312-94/samsung-feels-the-power-as-galaxy-note-2-lifts-off/?ttag=fbwp

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mdasen
That makes sense. If you were thinking about getting a GS3 in late September,
you might as well wait to see what Apple was coming out with. If it were known
that Samsung would be introducing a new flagship phone 2 weeks after the
iPhone, I think a lot of people would have waited to make their decision. Then
once they saw both, they would pull the trigger to buy the one they wanted.

I bought an iPhone 5, but was definitely interested in the Lumia 920
announcement. If it was going to be announced a week after the iPhone, I
certainly would have waited to see what it was. It makes sense that people
would delay their purchase decision for a few weeks if they know a competitor
is just about to announce something - if for no other reason than to confirm
that the original device actually is the one they wanted.

~~~
Steko
"Then once they saw both, they would pull the trigger to buy the one they
wanted."

What's far more common would be more or less uninformed people walked in to
buy an iphone 5, and were told it was out of stock for weeks and the salesman
(who gets a significantly better commission on Samsung phones) tries his best
to sell them the GS3 and sometimes does. I know this is a common story because
I've actually seen the exact scenario play out several times in the course of
an hour I spent with my wife in the Sprint store activating her phone.

~~~
CWIZO
You and mdasen both have a valid theory. Unfortunately it's just that, a
theory.

~~~
blinkingled
Parent assumes however that everyone walking into the store looking for a
phone wants or deserves the iPhone but is sold an (implicitly) inferior one
because iPhone is not in stock and / or the salesman gets more commission to
sell the S3. The S3 is actually a great phone and I find it hard to believe
people don't know the iPhone and accept something they don't like. At the
least they consider both and go with the S3 because they like it and partially
because they can't buy the iPhone anyways. Remember Microsoft / Nokia paying
more commission to sales people hasn't taken WP anywhere.

Tangentially is Apple losing their acclaimed grip on the supply chain if they
can't make enough iPhones but Samsung can make and sell double that after
paying sales people more and still making 7.4B in profit?

~~~
mdasen
So, my theory isn't that someone is accepting an inferior device. Rather, that
if you think the GS3 is awesome and are thinking of buying it a week before
Apple is set to introduce a new iPhone, it's prudent to wait to make sure
Apple doesn't have something amazing up its sleeve.

Similarly, if Samsung had a press event a week after Apple introduced the
iPhone, it would be prudent to wait and see if Samsung had something amazing
that they were introducing.

~~~
blinkingled
Yeah, sorry I kind of misraead your post and mixed it up with the reply below.
Your theory is credible though - as in it has a supporting data point in its
favor - Amazon announced that Kindle Fire sales after iPad mini announcement
went up 3 times normal.

------
UnoriginalGuy
I don't think Samsung's advertising hurt either. Many of which directly
targeted (made fun of?) Apple users.

Stuff like this: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf5-Prx19ZM>

They've been showing that non-stop in the states.

~~~
aes256
That's actually a pretty neat ad.

So far the only ad I've seen for the SIII in the UK is this one:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsP-S2nETCc>

With selling points such as "it understands you", "keeps track of loved ones",
"recognises who you are", "follows your every move", "waits till you're
asleep", it sounds like a commercial for a bloody serial killer.

~~~
CountSessine
_With selling points such as "it understands you", "keeps track of loved
ones", "recognises who you are", "follows your every move", "waits till you're
asleep", it sounds like a commercial for a bloody serial killer._

I watched the ad you posted. It's bland.

It's too bad that they didn't have something edgier, especially with those
quotes you mentioned. Maybe even something a bit more like this, from a few
years ago?

[http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2006/02/new_psp_ad...](http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2006/02/new_psp_adverts.html)

~~~
aes256
I assume the reason it's bland is because it was designed to be translated
into a bunch of different languages, most likely to be used across the whole
of Europe, if not the Middle East and Asia as well.

I would guess the copy wasn't written in English, and whatever message it was
intended to convey was lost in translation.

It's not quite as bad as the bland multinational ads we get where they have
the audacity to dub English over foreign vocals, but it's not far off...

Edit: A sample of the latter for the uninitiated:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IqMa7LOtgo>

------
SoapSeller
Also, The 199$ Kindle Fire had the biggest sales day(since the launch) after
the iPad Mini unveiled: [http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/27/3563380/amazon-
kindle-fir...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/27/3563380/amazon-kindle-fire-
hd-sales-after-ipad-mini-event)

------
acabal
For a second I thought this was an Onion article:

> 'I was shocked by the numbers,' Kevin Packingham, chief product officer of
> Samsung's U.S. mobile arm, said. 'What the heck is going on here?'

> the company on Wednesday threw a splashy party for media, d-list
> celebrities, and select Samsung fans...

> Winning 'Phablet' fans

Alright, nice that Samsung is doing well, but come on--this article makes it
sound like Samsung is a joke!

~~~
septerr
I felt similarly. And that first statement by Kevin Packingham made me gag.
Yea, he works for Samsung and made a statement saying he was shocked to see
uptick in their sales after iPhone5 release. Plus the article is fileld with
too many statements from the company or description of the party.Analysis,
comparison, user survey...stuff like that would have been more relevant.

------
ceworthington
Supply chain issues really hurt in a market as competitive as smartphones. I
wonder how many sales Apple loses per day because they can't keep the product
in stock?

Buying an iPhone 5 involves either lots of waiting, or hard work to track one
down.

~~~
drivebyacct2
People will just buy a different smartphone if they're out of stock? Let alone
if it's the iPhone they want? I don't believe it.

~~~
lucisferre
It's a large market, I'm not really sure how you can be surprised by
significant market segments that don't actually care all that much wich web-
enabled phone they get when their contract is up. Not everyone make purchase
decisions like a geek.

~~~
drivebyacct2
I'm sorry, I just see "SIII sales rise as iPhone 5 release" -> "Well it's just
because they can't buy an iPhone 5" to be asinine. They couldn't buy the
iPhone 5 before the announcement either. Playing it off as "they don't care"
doesn't make any sense because there's correlation with the iPhone
announcement date.

Even if they were potential iPhone 5 buyers, they either said: "Meh, not that
great" or "Not great enough to bother waiting... 2 weeks". I guess I see a 2
week wait for a 104 week contract to not be a big deal...

~~~
mbreese
Sadly, many people don't think that much about phone purchases. Waiting an
extra two weeks for a phone might seem like the rational thing to do (if you
wanted the iPhone 5 in the first place), but buying things isn't always a
rational process.

------
salimmadjd
"The spike after the iPhone 5 launch suggests that consumers hung around to
see what Apple had to show off, weren't impressed, and went with a Galaxy S
III instead."

I don't know how they can make this conclusion. It could be that iPhone5 was
sold out and since they were already at the store they bought another phone
that could give them similar options. The difference is it has less to do by
being impressed and more to do with iPhone actually brought customers to
stores and helped sell the Galaxy.

------
robryan
I got the impression that a lot of people decided to go with the s3 after
iPhone 5 launch didn't give them anything truly compelling.

As others have said, the average smartphone buyer is quite fickle, so just as
easily as Apple can win them they can loose them, even if in effect the person
will use the iPhone and s3 the do essentially the same things.

~~~
marknutter
Sure, but what's "truly compelling" about the S3?

~~~
vidarh
Compared to the iPhone? Bigger screen. Android.

It'd take something exceptional for me to consider an iPhone for those two
reasons alone.

But I'm sure there's enough users who usually fall down on either side that
are reasonably undecided enough that they might wait to see whether the "other
camp" has something exceptional to offer before making their purchase decision
when there's a new big launch around the corner.

------
pzaich
I recently switched over to the SIII from the iPhone 4. Honestly, I'm not that
impressed. Physically the device is great; I like the size of the screen and
the finish is decent, but the screen sensitivity is sorely lacking compared to
my 2 year old iPhone. I find myself having to use the back button all the time
after clicking on the wrong links or wrong app icons. I don't remember ever
having this problem on the iPhone. The battery life is also inferior, probably
due to the screen-size and I don't want to have to lug around another battery
every day.

I haven't tried the iPhone 5 yet as it hasn't been launched in Korea yet, but
I seriously doubt that the iPhone 5 is an inferior product to the S III. There
are some nice customizations you can do with Android phones, but if you want a
phone that just "works", go with an iPhone.

~~~
esolyt
I have never heard of an issue with screen sensitivity on Galaxy S3 from
anyone before.

------
paul_f
Maybe people simply prefer the GS3 to the iPhone 5? Could it be that simple?
Yes, it is that simple.

------
suchire
More than likely it is difficult to disentangle the fact that Samsung made an
incredibly heavy marketing push for the GS3 right around the time that the
iPhone 5 launched, so there are no statistics that will tell you whether it's
because of the iPhone 5 launch that sales rose or because of the marketing
timing.

------
JuDue
There was a similar post about Kindle.

It should be expected.

People wait to see what is available.

Of course there will be a flood of Amazon/Apple/Android sales.

This does not tell us which one got the most sales.

Regardless, Apple may of got the bigger profit.

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nextstep
This is lame speculation over a small uptick. This does not deserve to be on
the front page of HN.

------
lrm
I think the main reason is that the GS3 is mentioned in so many articles about
the iPhone 5.

------
taligent
Here in Australia Samsung has noticeably increased the advertising for the
Galaxy S3 in response to the iPhone 5.

That seems like a much bigger reason for their increase in sales than anything
else.

~~~
jemeshsu
Here in Singapore, you don't see any iPhone 5 ads. But Samsung ads together
with the three local telcos are everywhere. iPhone 5 sells itself as it is hot
seller here. No doubt Samsung might sell more due to the ads and more models
at lower costs.

