
Samsung warns profit to fall 60% - Ultramanoid
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2019/04/06/2003712873
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sanxiyn
Comments here are out of their mind. Samsung's smartphone business hasn't been
a profit center for quite some time. Majority of profit came from DRAM and
NAND, and profit fall is directly attributable to recent price crash of both.

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foobar1962
I just had a conversation with somebody who asserted that Apple was bad
(proprietary etc) and Samsung was good, and that Apple was 3rd phone maker
behind Samsung and Huawei.

He may be right about Apple being 3rd, but Apple looks to be the only one
making a decent profit from their phones.

How do they manage that when they have to pay for both hardware and software
development, when all the others get the software for free?

~~~
anthony_doan
> How do they manage that when they have to pay for both hardware and software
> development, when all the others get the software for free?

It's their ecosystem, all their hardwares work very well between each other.
You have Apple messenger on a macbook connecting to your iphone. For android
you need to download pushbullet. I'm not in the ecosystem I prefer Android but
I can see why people such as consumer would continue to buy Apple stuff. I'm
not entirely sure about their laptops though...

Also Apple make a lot of money from services such as itune and their app
store. Itune made more than Spotify. It all works together with their close
ecosystem.

It's a real pain to move from apple to android because text messages goes
straight to apple server. You need to sign off and jump a hoop to get text
message back to android. Also getting mp3 off of itunes or getting bandcamp
mp3s on to itune. It's like LA fitness, at least in 2010, where if you want to
cancel your gym membership you need to download the pdf from their website and
then mail it to the provided address and then they'll charge you anyway one
extra month.

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eridius
You're saying Apple's making the money from the ecosystem, but that's not what
the parent is asking. The parent is asking how Apple is making a money on each
individual iPhone, which they absolutely are. Even if you never buy into the
rest of the Apple ecosystem, merely purchasing an iPhone means Apple is making
a profit from you.

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forkLding
Signals to the end of an era, smartphones have matured and are becoming
ubiquitous like laptops. Moreover, the most profitable smartphones belong to
Apple which held 86% of smartphone profits generated in the industry in 2018.
Samsung was competing more in the mid to affordable segments so it was bound
to start losing once others started catching up, especially since its Chinese
competitors are basically giving up profits for growth in the affordable to
medium segments.

[https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/04/17/apple-
grabs-86-of...](https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/04/17/apple-grabs-86-of-
smartphone-profits-globally-iphone-x-alone-seizes-35)

~~~
zaphirplane
> Samsung was competing more in the mid to affordable

I assumed Samsung’s android phones were the top of the range. Who do you think
is the high end android phone brand

~~~
zanny
They make high end phones, but their sales volume doesn't make up for the
margins. In terms of manufactured phone volume, the Galaxy line makes up a
tiny fraction of their total sales.

I feel like the vast majority of the Android ecosystem foot gunned itself
pushing its way out of reasonably priced device segments. There really are no
modern equivalents to the Moto G or Nexus 5 or even early One Plus phones in
the $150-$350 range. Its garbage up through $200, then a giant gap to $1000
phones.

Especially in the tablet segment. I can get why Google didn't want to try to
single-handedly prop up the form factor with first party devices, but the last
good (and reasonably priced) Android tablets remain the second generation
Nexus 7 and Nvidia Shield from half a decade ago.

~~~
fulafel
Nokia does what you want. See eg
[https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/02/guidemaster-the-
best...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/02/guidemaster-the-best-android-
phones-from-budget-to-flagships/)

~~~
eertami
I wish Nokia would release a cheap phone with an AMOLED screen, eg, like the
Oneplus X 4 years ago...

Until there's another sub 300$ phone with an AMOLED upgrading seems pointless.

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axaxs
Samsung's problems are just beginning. They're getting destroyed on every
front, and basically all comes from China.

On the phone front, they were used to selling phones at premium pricing only
relying on their brand name. You don't have to look past Nokia or Blackberry
to see how that will end. They're not really innovative, and while their
devices are generally quality, they've pushed the price point too high. Xiaomi
does 90 percent of it for 30 percent of the price. Huawei does 200 percent for
about the same price.

On the chip front, TSMC has been outpacing them for years, and is getting all
the contracts.

The only thing I can think of that Samsung does better than anyone else is
OLED, and others are catching up very quickly.

I think Samsung will join the ranks of HTC and LG as also rans in short
time...

~~~
AFascistWorld
I won't recommend Xiaomi to anyone I like, and the demise of Samsung phones in
China is more "emotionally" driven, yes Samsung phones are expensive, but so
do Oppo and Vivo.

They are more out-marketed than "out-tech-ed".

~~~
robjan
The high-end Xiaomis usually match the other flagship androids at half the
price. My Mi5 S Plus has outlasted many of my friend's phones that were a lot
more expensive. It cost just HK$3k (US$380).

~~~
prolikewhoa
I've had zero issues with my Android One Xiaomi. Best value I've ever had in a
phone for $169. Easily a better value than the $349 Nokia 7.1.

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baybal2
It's not clear what they are talking about, Samsung Electronics, Samsung
Electro Mechanics (their components business,) or the whole Samsung Group.

~~~
sanxiyn
It's about Samsung Electronics. Samsung Electronics (roughly) has
telecommunication division doing smartphone business and component division
doing DRAM and NAND. Samsung Electro-Mechanics does semiconductor packaging,
not semiconductor itself.

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tyingq
Moore is less, I guess? People holding on to older phones longer.

~~~
dragosmocrii
Why should I upgrade my Huawei P9 I got in 2016, when it works perfectly fine*
and has the adequate power to run everything smoothly.

* I did change the battery twice though. Too bad it's not as easy as taking the back cover as on a Nexus One...

~~~
collyw
A lot of people get phones as part of a contract (here in Europe at least),
and that's usually a year and a half or two years. After that you might as
well take the phone upgrade.

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kurtisc
Keeping the phone and going SIM-only is much cheaper

~~~
collyw
Sue that's why I do but I think I am in a minority with that.

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skilled
Been using a Huawei 3i phone for more than a month now. I literally could not
tell if this was Huawei or Samsung if I was given this phone without prior
knowledge.

Although, there are rumors that Huawei are working on their own OS. And it
would be interesting to see whether they would also introduce an OS for their
laptop series.

~~~
baybal2
"own OS" mentioned there is just another linux distro

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unstatusthequo
Winter is coming

