Apple could take immense control of the smartphone market after today’s iPhone 7 launch
In case you haven’t heard, Apple is gearing up to launch the iPhone 7 today. They’re no doubt prepared for a big show, and we’re sure they’ll have a lot to say about a certain company whose certain phone goes a certain “boom” every now and then.
Alright, let’s stop the tomfoolery: they have a real chance to make Samsung cry starting today. As we’re totally expecting, Apple will do more than just make a quick joke about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s explosive nature in their press conference. We’re expecting a full-on advertising blitz to attack the market while Samsung is at its weakest.
The Korean company’s entire strategy for pushing the launch of their flagships forward was to beat Apple to the market, and as of now the store shelves where their phones once sat are very empty. To be fair, they were empty before Samsung was forced to commit to a global recall as it was selling extremely well.
But their biggest problem is that the holiday shopping season hasn’t arrived yet, a period where smartphone sales tend to spike as new deals go up and people start looking into upgrades. The all new iPhone 7 will be waiting for you. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 might not.
Of course, we have no clue how long it’ll take Samsung to right the ship and get back on schedule with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. It’s possible they can make it in time to keep Apple from stealing all of the attention. Even so, Samsung took a big black eye with this issue and Apple can use that against them any time and any way they want.
The funny thing in all of this is that Apple is already giving Samsung problems, at least as far as the US market is concerned. Despite launching in 2015, Apple’s iPhone 6S is still selling better than the Samsung Galaxy S7. The difference between those 2 lines isn’t staggering in that regard, with Kantar reporting a 9% share for Samsung vs 11% for the iPhone 6S in the 3 months ending July 2016. But Apple also has the third best seller in the iPhone SE, taking up 5% for itself.
While all of this may sound bad for Samsung, keep in mind that they’re still doing leagues better with the Samsung Galaxy S7 than they were able to with the Samsung Galaxy S6, the latter of which didn’t help Samsung much during a down period. The sky isn’t falling, but if they aren’t careful with this Galaxy Note 7 situation then Apple will most certainly take full advantage to steal more of Samsung’s share of the pie. The iPhone event is at 1PM Eastern.