Samsung's first Galaxy S smartphone was the company's most successful Android device. Until, that is, the release of the Galaxy S2. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
Samsung has its sights on being the king of all things Android.
The company announced Wednesday that its Galaxy S 2 smartphone reached record sales numbers for the company, with more than 5 million handsets sold in the first three months since the smartphone’s debut. And that number accounts for only a quarter of the company’s total smartphone sales over the past three months.
“[Samsung is] claiming that they shipped 19 million smartphones in the second quarter,” IDC mobile analyst Al Hilwa told Wired.com in a statement. “That is a great number of devices, and assuming that most of them are Android phones, then it is a feat for Android.”
The numbers are only going up from here. Thus far, the Galaxy S2’s release has been limited to South Korea (where Samsung’s global HQ is located), parts of southeast Asia and a handful of European countries. The phone’s U.S. release is slated for some time in August, according to Samsung president of mobile business and digital imaging Shin Jong-kyun. The news was first reported by Korean news agency Yonhap.
“In just a few months the Galaxy S II has led the way in driving Samsung’s unmatched performance in the smartphone industry” Shin said in a statement. “This reflects the strong support from carrier partners globally, who in choosing the Galaxy S II as their flagship device have reaffirmed the device’s status as a premium, market-defining Smartphone.”
A little perspective: Samsung’s first highly popular smartphone, the Galaxy S, hit the five million mark at around four months, with the lion’s share of those sales occurring in the United States. And after six months of global sales, the Galaxy S hit 10 million units sold.
Compare that to Motorola’s Droid One smartphone — once considered the most successful Android phone — which sold 1.05 million devices in the first 74 days of release. Since its first major successful Android phone, Motorola has strived for another hit device. The Atrix– the smartphone-cum-laptop hybrid device which Motorola first introduced in January — looked to be the company’s next hit phone. But high prices for the accompanying peripheral hardware that made the phone unique deterred customers, keeping the Atrix from gaining any significant following.
“Device makers have always craved being platform owners,” Hilwa told Wired.com, “which is why they end up developing as much software and tinkering with the UI’s, so that they can move up the food chain.”
And that’s exactly what Samsung is doing. The company plans to unveil a major revamp of its TouchWiz user interface at an event in New York next week. It’s a timely release, considering Apple’s iOS 5 revamp announcement just over a month ago.
Aside from competing for customers with rival Android manufacturers, Samsung is fighting battles on other fronts. Apple is currently suing Samsung in a bitter ongoing patent dispute, claiming the South Korean company is ripping off Apple’s product designs. Samsung quickly filed countersuits against Apple, claiming Apple was encroaching on Samsung’s intellectual property by using a method to improve connections between cell phones and cellular towers.
Samsung’s battles with Apple extend outside of the courtroom, of course. When measured against Apple’s iPhone sales, Samsung’s numbers pale in comparison. Apple sold over 20 million iPhone 4 smartphones in the past three months alone, according to the Cupertino-based company’s last earnings report. That’s over 100 million iPhones sold to date.
A straight apples-to-apples comparison (so to speak) is misleading. Samsung isn’t just competing against Apple and its iOS platform. As one of many manufacturers producing hardware running the same operating system, customers can choose between Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson and others to get their Android fix. That’s not to mention the other competitors in the space like RIM, HP and Nokia, though the latter two admittedly have a negligible market share.
If Samsung continues to pull ahead of other Android devices in the pack, the company seems to be the only true competitor to Apple’s skyrocketing smartphone success. In the first quarter of 2011, Samsung accounted for 13 percent of all smartphones sold globally, up from just three percent during the same period of time the previous year. That’s more than any other Android manufacturer, according to IMS Research. It’s important to note that rival manufacturer HTC isn’t far behind, however: The Taiwan-based company is just three percent behind Samsung in market share, according to IMS.
There’s also competition on the tablet device front, where Samsung may be putting out some of the best hardware. DisplayMate president Dr. Raymond Soneira recently compared five of the leading tablet devices on the market — four of which were Android-based, with the last being the iPad 2. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 came out ahead, touting the best display out of all five devices, including Apple’s (though it should be noted that Soneira found Samsung’s colors oversaturated to a noticeable degree).
The devices themselves, however, are just one part of the overall package. “Samsung has done a great job on making compelling hardware, the look, feel and capabilities,” Gartner mobile analyst Phillip Redman told Wired.com in an interview. “But the total ecosystem is not in its hands like it is Apple’s. It really isn’t just about the hardware. That’s important—but it’s the ecosystem that includes the OS, the application stores, the developers, content—all of that that will make something successful.”
Apple certainly has a leg up on its competitors in the overall ecosystem. The company has approved over half a million apps for its App Store as of May, double the amount currently found on the Android Market. And of course, Apple owns its software, hardware and retail stores. The company also keeps strict control over its app ecosystem, with final say on what is and isn’t acceptable for its store.
So even if Samsung can corner the Android landscape, can it stand up to Apple, a company which seems to have the entire package going for it?
“Samsung and Motorola Mobility will be great competitors to Apple,” Redman says, “but they aren’t of the same leadership caliber, position and vision.”
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