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Samsung profits fall as iPhone trumps Galaxy
Samsung makes beautiful hardware and sells more smartphones than any other company. All it needs to do now is to figure out how to make the business profitable.
The company has just posted its biggest drop in quarterly profit since at least 2009. According to Bloomberg, that happened despite selling more smartphones because the average selling price was lower and the company needed to spend more on marketing.
Bloomberg’s report suggests Samsung lost its edge to Apple when the company started selling larger screen iPhones. It was an area where Samsung previously dominated. The company says it will soon launch new models, included the Samsung Note 4, to help it compete.
Sure that will help, but only a little. The Note 4 is unlikely to be more than an incremental update to the company’s large format smartphone. Samsung needs more than that to compete with the iPhone.
Apart from anything else it needs to simplify its sales message. The last two Samsung product launches I’ve endured — and that word only goes part way to describing the full horror — have been a confused mess with complex, unclear signals and focus on dull apps or content-bundling deals that only apply in certain markets.
Frankly Samsung would do better by dumping all the bloatware loaded on its products, dropping the software overlays and using the money saved to cut prices. It’s phones could do with better cameras and improved battery life. And Samsung either needs to cut free from Google’s Android operating system or embrace it more enthusiastically.
Bill Bennett
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
Bennett's The Download Weekly newsletter is published every Friday. You can sign up for it here.
If you want to support his work, you can make a donation to his PressPatron account.
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