Apple's U.S. iPhone sales were up 16 percent year-over-year during the March quarter to 16 million, even as the domestic smartphone market as a whole dropped 11 percent from 43.7 million units to 38.7 million, according to research published on Tuesday.
If estimates and supplier predictions are correct, Samsung is poised to reap $14.3 billion in parts delivery alone from just the iPhone X through 2019, with the Galaxy S8 gathering only $10.1 billion.
The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus held on as the world's most popular smartphones in the June quarter, according to research data published on Wednesday, handily relegating Samsung's newer Galaxy S8 flagship to third place.
Apple rival Samsung Electronics has posted profits of $12.65 billion for the June quarter, its highest quarterly revenues ever — also eclipsing predictions for Apple's performance in the period, though the situation is likely to reverse once this fall's iPhones ship.
Samsung on Wednesday announced that Bixby, its equivalent of Apple's Siri, is now available on U.S. versions of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ — roughly three months after the phones first launched.
Samsung announced today that first-month sales of its Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have reached 5 million units. Sales of the previous year's Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge sold an estimated 7-9 million units in their initial launch month, while back in 2013 Samsung announced its Galaxy S4 sold 10 million in its first month, a "Peak Galaxy" the company has never actually managed to surpass.
It's hard to escape the media pronouncements that iPhones are now boring again after Samsung unveiled its latest Galaxy S8, Apple's Mac business is being overshadowed by more exciting Surface Windows PCs from Microsoft and that Apple Watch is a disappointing dud. But all of those media narratives are wrong, here's why.
Looking to recover from last year's exploding Note 7 fiasco, Samsung is expected to launch its first ever dual camera handset in the Note 8 later this year, according to a report from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Samsung is apparently confident that a rash of fires with its Note 7 phablet were caused by manufacturing errors, and not design or parts, as it has adopted many of the same features — and even one of the same battery manufacturers — with the new Galaxy S8+.
Apple's lead in mobile performance—powered by the efficiency of iOS 10 and the computational speed of its custom A10 Fusion Application Processor—beats the newest, leading premium Androids in a wide range of tests from processor and 3D benchmarks to real-world device startup and app launching and multitasking. Not even 6GB of RAM and the extra cores of Qualcomm's fastest Snapdragon 835 can prop up the laggard, inefficient Android OS.
A year ago Samsung touted waterproofing claims for the Galaxy S7 that didn't hold water. Six months ago, Samsung said its Galaxy Note 7 battery fires were under control before they flared up again. This season, Samsung's newest flagship also has features that simply don't work yet, including its Bixby voice service that was supposed to rival Apple's Siri.
The launch of Samsung's 2017 flagship Galaxy S8 isn't causing any apparent concern among Apple's investors, who collectively pushed the company's stock even further upward today despite the announcements—and the continuous run up in Apple stock that has occurred since the iPhone maker last released earnings in January.
Samsung on Wednesday confirmed a multitude of rumors by announcing its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8 — a device with an OLED "Infinity" display and no physical home button, much like Apple's rumored "iPhone 8."
Confirming rumors, Samsung on Monday revealed the existence of "Bixby," a new AI assistant that should debut with the Galaxy S8 later this month and challenge Apple's Siri with some new technologies.
While Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8 and S8+ will nominally compete with Apple's rumored "iPhone 7s" and "iPhone 8" phones, they may sit in a middleground in terms of price, a well-known leak source suggested over the weekend.
Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has chimed in on the imminent Galaxy S8 release, and is predicting a significant drop in sales when compared to the Galaxy S7 to date because of a lack of selling points, and an attractive possible "iPhone 8" release.
The latest leak of the Samsung Galaxy S8 offers what may be the clearest view yet of the phone, which will apparently beat Apple's "iPhone 8" to the punch in combining a curved edge-to-edge OLED display with no physical home button.
Photos and videos posted over the weekend allegedly show the final designs of Samsung's latest answers to the Apple iPhone, the Galaxy S8 and S8+, which should be officially revealed at an event in late March.
Samsung is reportedly developing a version of its upcoming "Galaxy S8" that will compete in some respects not just with Apple's iPhone 7 Plus, but also eye-scanning technology only expected in iPhones shipping later this year.
Samsung's next flagship phone, the Galaxy S8, could include a new S Health app with features above and beyond Apple's HealthKit and CareKit — including the ability to schedule online consultations with doctors, or even pay medical fees.
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Roger Fingas
Mike Wuerthele
Daniel Eran Dilger
Mikey Campbell
AppleInsider Staff
