That makes sense. If you were thinking about getting a GS3 in late September, you might as well wait to see what Apple was coming out with. If it were known that Samsung would be introducing a new flagship phone 2 weeks after the iPhone, I think a lot of people would have waited to make their decision. Then once they saw both, they would pull the trigger to buy the one they wanted.
I bought an iPhone 5, but was definitely interested in the Lumia 920 announcement. If it was going to be announced a week after the iPhone, I certainly would have waited to see what it was. It makes sense that people would delay their purchase decision for a few weeks if they know a competitor is just about to announce something - if for no other reason than to confirm that the original device actually is the one they wanted.
"Then once they saw both, they would pull the trigger to buy the one they wanted."
What's far more common would be more or less uninformed people walked in to buy an iphone 5, and were told it was out of stock for weeks and the salesman (who gets a significantly better commission on Samsung phones) tries his best to sell them the GS3 and sometimes does. I know this is a common story because I've actually seen the exact scenario play out several times in the course of an hour I spent with my wife in the Sprint store activating her phone.
Parent assumes however that everyone walking into the store looking for a phone wants or deserves the iPhone but is sold an (implicitly) inferior one because iPhone is not in stock and / or the salesman gets more commission to sell the S3. The S3 is actually a great phone and I find it hard to believe people don't know the iPhone and accept something they don't like. At the least they consider both and go with the S3 because they like it and partially because they can't buy the iPhone anyways. Remember Microsoft / Nokia paying more commission to sales people hasn't taken WP anywhere.
Tangentially is Apple losing their acclaimed grip on the supply chain if they can't make enough iPhones but Samsung can make and sell double that after paying sales people more and still making 7.4B in profit?
So, my theory isn't that someone is accepting an inferior device. Rather, that if you think the GS3 is awesome and are thinking of buying it a week before Apple is set to introduce a new iPhone, it's prudent to wait to make sure Apple doesn't have something amazing up its sleeve.
Similarly, if Samsung had a press event a week after Apple introduced the iPhone, it would be prudent to wait and see if Samsung had something amazing that they were introducing.
Yeah, sorry I kind of misraead your post and mixed it up with the reply below. Your theory is credible though - as in it has a supporting data point in its favor - Amazon announced that Kindle Fire sales after iPad mini announcement went up 3 times normal.
Your theory should be testable by showing a dip (or some kind of deviation at least) in the sales of the GS3 just prior to the iPhone announcement. However I believe (and I'm sorry, I'm going purely from memory here) that sales were accelerating then too. Personally I think there was just a giant ad spend on all sides that caused a lot of consumers to decide to get a new phone. What phone they chose was down to what they liked when they walked in the store.
The first theory assumes that some consumers will wait until both phone are available to make a choice. Obviously, some will choose iPhone and some S3.
The second theory says that some people will go to buy an iPhone, and instead get an S3 when no iPhones are in stock. Again, plausible. This comment has nothing to do with which phone is better.
It is implied though - if we speculate that most people go to buy an iPhone it sort of implies that iPhone is what people want (people generally want the best) and if they end up with something else it is the second best. No?
No. It implies that's what a significant number of people want. I don't even know how you can argue against the simple logic of it. Millions of people walk into the store looking for a Galaxy S, they get a Galaxy S. Some other millions walk in looking for an iphone and can't buy one but can buy any of 10 other phones. Some of them will end up waiting, some will end up not buying anything, some will end up buying those other phones. Ergo sales spike.
I don't believe the second theory said "most". The author just said some people will go to buy a new iPhone, find it out of stock, and buy an S3 instead.
Not to belabor but he claimed it was a common occurence - for it to be a common occurence enough to contribute meaningfully towards the increase in S3 sales the number of people would have to approach most :)
It's hardly a data point, but people definitely get confused. A relative was telling me about her new iPhone, when I next met her, she pulled out her Samsung to show me it, still calling it an iPhone. This person isn't stupid, just isn't particularly tech literate.
If mdasen is correct, sales for all phones should rise following the unveiling. If Steko is correct, only the Galaxy S III would spike, and other phones would probably dip in sales.
Both theories are probable enough that they likely happened in tandem - with some people waiting to see Apple's phone before pulling the trigger, others heading for Apple and being sold a Samsung. We could probably figure the quantity of each by comparing sales variations by brand and model.
No, not all phones. iPhone-class phones, of which the Galaxy S III is most certainly the most successful and hardest pushed.
When someone comes in the store asking for an iPhone 5, the salesperson is not going to push some cheap crap on them. They will push the best, most expensive alternative. As far as I can see the Galaxy S III is pretty much the only phone marketed on eye level with the iPhone by carriers.
This is exactly what I'm doing. I've had iPhones for 4 years, but have been underwhelmed by the innovation in iOS. After iOS6 and iPhone 5 didn't present much of anything new, I've decided to go with the S3 or Note II.
With selling points such as "it understands you", "keeps track of loved ones", "recognises who you are", "follows your every move", "waits till you're asleep", it sounds like a commercial for a bloody serial killer.
With selling points such as "it understands you", "keeps track of loved ones", "recognises who you are", "follows your every move", "waits till you're asleep", it sounds like a commercial for a bloody serial killer.
I watched the ad you posted. It's bland.
It's too bad that they didn't have something edgier, especially with those quotes you mentioned. Maybe even something a bit more like this, from a few years ago?
I assume the reason it's bland is because it was designed to be translated into a bunch of different languages, most likely to be used across the whole of Europe, if not the Middle East and Asia as well.
I would guess the copy wasn't written in English, and whatever message it was intended to convey was lost in translation.
It's not quite as bad as the bland multinational ads we get where they have the audacity to dub English over foreign vocals, but it's not far off...
I am particularly fond of the samsung ad that has the line (in response to somebody claiming they need an iphone because they are creative) "Dude, you're a barista".
It's not very nice, but it definitely got a good belly laugh out of me.
I felt similarly. And that first statement by Kevin Packingham made me gag. Yea, he works for Samsung and made a statement saying he was shocked to see uptick in their sales after iPhone5 release. Plus the article is fileld with too many statements from the company or description of the party.Analysis, comparison, user survey...stuff like that would have been more relevant.
I agree the one of the article is messed up. The embeded video review of the note 2 is also equally terrible. Every positive attribute of that device is stated in a passive aggressive manner. This is what happens though when your brand doesn't have a coherent message. "Designed for humans" is a joke.
Supply chain issues really hurt in a market as competitive as smartphones. I wonder how many sales Apple loses per day because they can't keep the product in stock?
Buying an iPhone 5 involves either lots of waiting, or hard work to track one down.
It's a large market, I'm not really sure how you can be surprised by significant market segments that don't actually care all that much wich web-enabled phone they get when their contract is up. Not everyone make purchase decisions like a geek.
I'm sorry, I just see "SIII sales rise as iPhone 5 release" -> "Well it's just because they can't buy an iPhone 5" to be asinine. They couldn't buy the iPhone 5 before the announcement either. Playing it off as "they don't care" doesn't make any sense because there's correlation with the iPhone announcement date.
Even if they were potential iPhone 5 buyers, they either said: "Meh, not that great" or "Not great enough to bother waiting... 2 weeks". I guess I see a 2 week wait for a 104 week contract to not be a big deal...
Sadly, many people don't think that much about phone purchases. Waiting an extra two weeks for a phone might seem like the rational thing to do (if you wanted the iPhone 5 in the first place), but buying things isn't always a rational process.
If they get to the point of going into a store, you can bet that the store employees will do everything they can to sell them a different phone that is in stock today, that they can earn a commission on now.
The same would be true if iPhones were abundant and the Galaxy was out of stock, though Apple will always be at a disadvantage because there is only one "current" iPhone while there are any number of "new" Android phones the sales guy/gal could choose to push.
I have had great difficulty getting an iPhone 5. This has been compounded by the fact that AT&T have screwed up my iPhone order twice.
I am thinking of getting a galaxy because of the nonsense. The main reasoning for not doing so is the loss of my apps. 4 years of app purchases are effectively going to be wasted.
Most people buy a new phone when they're getting a new plan or renewing their old one, and don't want to delay that process for weeks.
As for "Let alone if it's the iPhone that they want" Apple is the most recognizable brand and thus a higher portion of it's users are likely to be uninformed and persuadable.
"The spike after the iPhone 5 launch suggests that consumers hung around to see what Apple had to show off, weren't impressed, and went with a Galaxy S III instead."
I don't know how they can make this conclusion. It could be that iPhone5 was sold out and since they were already at the store they bought another phone that could give them similar options. The difference is it has less to do by being impressed and more to do with iPhone actually brought customers to stores and helped sell the Galaxy.
I got the impression that a lot of people decided to go with the s3 after iPhone 5 launch didn't give them anything truly compelling.
As others have said, the average smartphone buyer is quite fickle, so just as easily as Apple can win them they can loose them, even if in effect the person will use the iPhone and s3 the do essentially the same things.
That was my thinking. I was underwhelmed with the iphone5, and I am now considering the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. But I am in my early 40's and I find the iPhone display too small. I also do a lot of napkin sketching, so the stylus feature is a plus for me - not a negative.
But then I am old enough that I learned how to use the original palm. Had a color Handspring for a while with a folding keyboard that I used for notes in business meeting. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
I also loved the promise of Siri but find the execution wothless at least 50% or the time. The android dictation seems to work better. Last but not least, I hated the old version of iPhone maps and he new version seems to be worse.
It'd take something exceptional for me to consider an iPhone for those two reasons alone.
But I'm sure there's enough users who usually fall down on either side that are reasonably undecided enough that they might wait to see whether the "other camp" has something exceptional to offer before making their purchase decision when there's a new big launch around the corner.
I think it compares favourably on a side for side feature comparison, plus I think it might be cheaper?
I get the impression for acquaintances that there was a lot of people who don't exactly agree with Apples opinionated design but got a iPhone 4 because it was the best thing on the market at the time. Now that there are viable alternatives they are happy to switch.
I recently switched over to the SIII from the iPhone 4. Honestly, I'm not that impressed. Physically the device is great; I like the size of the screen and the finish is decent, but the screen sensitivity is sorely lacking compared to my 2 year old iPhone. I find myself having to use the back button all the time after clicking on the wrong links or wrong app icons. I don't remember ever having this problem on the iPhone. The battery life is also inferior, probably due to the screen-size and I don't want to have to lug around another battery every day.
I haven't tried the iPhone 5 yet as it hasn't been launched in Korea yet, but I seriously doubt that the iPhone 5 is an inferior product to the S III. There are some nice customizations you can do with Android phones, but if you want a phone that just "works", go with an iPhone.
I've seen this a lot. It's not an issue of sensitivity. It's about getting used to specific screen calibrations. With the uncertainty brought by big fingers and glass thickness that vary, the exact spot where a device locates your touch isn't calculated exactly the same way.
You'll get used to the SIII and when you use a friend's iPhone, it will feel inaccurate and you will miss-touch all the links. I know I do when I use my wife's iPhone 5. It's worst when going from a SIII to an iPhone than the other way around because of the iPhone's small screen.
More than likely it is difficult to disentangle the fact that Samsung made an incredibly heavy marketing push for the GS3 right around the time that the iPhone 5 launched, so there are no statistics that will tell you whether it's because of the iPhone 5 launch that sales rose or because of the marketing timing.
Here in Singapore, you don't see any iPhone 5 ads. But Samsung ads together with the three local telcos are everywhere. iPhone 5 sells itself as it is hot seller here. No doubt Samsung might sell more due to the ads and more models at lower costs.
I bought an iPhone 5, but was definitely interested in the Lumia 920 announcement. If it was going to be announced a week after the iPhone, I certainly would have waited to see what it was. It makes sense that people would delay their purchase decision for a few weeks if they know a competitor is just about to announce something - if for no other reason than to confirm that the original device actually is the one they wanted.