Apple iPhone Catching Up With Samsung’s Smartphone Sales
Sales of Apple’s iPhone have now reached a global scale for the past few years. Samsung has been known as the top manufacturer when it comes to its Android smartphones and tablets. The manufacturer usually surpasses Apple’s iPhone devices in smartphone sales. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is catching up with Samsung in smartphone sales with its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have had strong sales since its release late last year. If sales continue to grow for the devices, Apple could push Samsung out of the top spot for smartphone sales. That would bring Samsung down to number two for smartphone sales. It’s also been rumored that smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi could also surpass Samsung sales as well.
Ironically, Samsung provides 75 percent of the chips that Apple uses in its newest iPhone, a South Korean-based Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Monday. The report was cited by people who know of Samsung’s future plans. Samsung will continue to produce the chips for the Apple iPhone, which is believed to be dubbed as A9. The chips are produced at its factory in Austin, Texas, according to the report. The financial terms for the arrangement have not been disclosed.
However, the money that Samsung can make off the iPhone is not negligible, according to CNET. Recent research firm HIS Technology reported that Apple spent $30.3 billion on its processors for its products in 2013. In September, HIS reported that Apple pays $20 per unit for processors used on its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which costs cheaper than older models which use legacy chips. In its fiscal fourth quarter during September, Apple sold 39.3 million iPhones, including the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Apple isn’t just selling more iPhones around the world, it’s also selling the most expensive phones in the world. According to MarketWatch, the iPhone 6 Plus costs $100 more than Apple’s previous model. Apple is also prompting its customers to upgrade to its more expensive iPhone models that offer more memory and larger data plans.
If Apple continues to rely on Samsung for making chips for its iPhone devices, that means that Apple’s own in-house chip-producing work isn’t working out as planned. Samsung does one up Apple when it comes to having quality chips. As Apple and Samsung continue to compete, it may destroy their agreement. Samsung could drop Apple because of its massive profit dip, but the deal generates too much money for the Korean manufacturer.
[Image by Apple]
