

Samsung Galaxy S III dethrones iPhone 4S as smartphone sales champ for Q3 2012 - Felix21
http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/08/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-dethrones-iphone-4s/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

======
simonh
A slightly more accurate headline: "Flagship Android phone beats year old
iPhone in sales in the same quarter the newest iPhone was released".

If you add iPhone 5 sales for that quarter to the iPhone 4s sales you get 24
million, 6 million more than for the S III. You have to look at this data with
extremely narrowly focused, Android tinted lenses to make this look like any
kind of victory for Samsung.

It does show that at last a flagship Android phone is managing to sell in
iPhone-like numbers. That's a good thing for Android and for the health of
competition in the smartphone market. Samsung are doing well.

~~~
elxx
How is that headline more accurate? The original one clearly states the facts,
that the S3 had more sales than the 4S in this quarter, making it the best
selling piece of hardware. And the article itself says that this was probably
because of the iPhone 5 release.

I don't understand why you're so quick to defend Apple by changing the metric,
despite nobody saying that this is any sort of "victory" for Samsung. It's an
obvious result of the iPhone 5 release, it will be on top of the charts the
next quarter as usual. If you're going to make it an iPhone vs. Android thing
then you should compare the sales of all iPhones and all Android phones, you
can't pick and choose a few from each category.

------
spiralpolitik
While the Galaxy S III is doing very well for Samsung, once again the article
makes the mistake of comparing "shipped" numbers verses "sold" numbers.

Given that those have been wildly inaccurate in the past (see the evidence in
the Apple Samsung trial) it somewhat undermines the point of the article and
the title itself.

------
kayoone
Even if the iPhone4S sales were canabalized by the upcoming iPhone5, its still
a major achievement for a single Android phone to come close to the iPhone
sales numbers, which is basically one of the most hyped/popular consumer
electronic device of all time.

------
simonh
Alright, time to burn some Karma because this isn't realy on topic. It's
provoked by a few of the comments on the Engadget page. Easy come, easy go.

It seems like the new iPhone that comes out each year being lighter, thinner,
faster with a sharper, brighter screen and better build quality and better
software than the previous phone, and every other phone on the planet isn't
enough. It's boring. There's a sentiment out there that Apple has to do
something radically, magically new that delights us with childlike wonder
every year on a consistent production line schedule. If they don't, they're a
washed up hasbeen that has betrayed Steve Jobs' legacy.

And no, bringing out devices that are lighter, thinner, faster, etc, etc is
not radically new. It's what they did last year, and the year before that, ad
nauseam. What did they do for is this month, that nobody has ever done before,
is all that counts. Don't give us better. Better is next door to mediocre and
only a few steps away from bad. So better might as well be bad. We demand
magical!

I honestly don't think I'm straw-manning here. Is that not what the "iPhone 5
is boring" brigade mean? I honestly don't know what to say to that. It's kind
of hard to comprehend that grown adults can think about things that way. It
mainly seems to affect Apple users too, people who have bought Apple products.
It's as though they're disappointed and upset that what they got was only an
excellent, high quality product.

Note: I'm not saying Apple haven't made missteps. The iOS 6 release with
mapping issues and various other niggles has shown that they're not perfect,
but then when were they ever? They've always had their fair share of awkward
updates and failed products.

~~~
fireflash38
I believe the major reasons why people were saying "iPhone 5 is boring" is
because the iPhone didn't do anything that other manufacturers weren't already
doing. iPhone 5 doesn't compete/exist only with other Apple products - it
competes with Android and W7. When you tout your latest phone as
'revolutionary' and it's only adding features that have been on other phones
for months already, you're gonna get backlash.

------
geetee
Pointless article. Galaxy S III outsold the iPhone 4S because the iPhone 5
came out.

~~~
skc
Wait a second, is there any reason why the SIII (or any other phone for that
matter) _shouldn't_ be able to outsell the iPhone 5?

~~~
dan1234
Typically the iPhone sells the most because the whole iOS ecosystem is limited
to a few devices. With android there are so many options to chose from that
one brand rarely outsells its Apple counterpart even though Android as a whole
has a far greater marketshare.

The S3 outselling the iPhone 5 would be a pretty big deal.

------
jakobe
The article forgot to mention that the Galaxy S III also outsold the iPhone 4
and the iPhone 3GS!

~~~
fireflash38
Neither of those were top sellers last quarter.

