In its efforts to turn around from the last year’s beat by Apple Inc.’s AAPL iPhone 6, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. SSNLF has finally unveiled its flagship smartphones, Galaxy S6 and double curved-screen Galaxy S6 Edge yesterday.
Samsung witnessed a bitter last quarter with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus completely crushing its sales. While Apple’s mobile shipments surged around 46% in the last quarter, those of Samsung dipped around 13%.
Until last-quarter results, Samsung held a prime position in the smartphone market with Apple slightly behind it. However, according to a recent research report from Strategy Analytics, both Apple and Samsung are now tied for the top spot as they compete to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor.
Apple’s share in the U.S. smartphone industry is nearly 42% according to a report by Internet analytics company comScore, against Samsung’s share of around 30% only. Furthermore, as per recent reports, Apple has been steadily gaining market share in countries like China, Japan and South Korea.
Galaxy S6 vs iPhone
It seems that the South Korean tech giant has put in best efforts to stage a comeback with the forthcoming launch of Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge on Apr 10. The company has enhanced the design of the two phones noticeably. Both Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge come with quality metal casings, similar to that of iPhone. Samsung even claims that the alloy used in the casing is 50% stronger than that of other premier phones including the iPhone. Moreover, the company’s innovative dual-edge styling in S6 Edge gives it an edge over the iPhone.
Apart from the design, Samsung has strived to outpace Apple in terms of display, camera and battery. Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, both have larger screens (5.1 inches) and a sharper display (557 pixels per inch). The 6-megapixel camera along with the 2,550 mAh battery, which powers both Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, also trumped that of iPhones.
Additionally, Samsung equipped its offerings with innovative features like rapid charging, wireless charging, multi-window and the Android Lollipop operating system, customized with TouchWiz UI. Furthermore, the Samsung smartphones use the superior 3-gigabyte DDR4 RAM that will likely boost the running memory by as much as 80%. Though Apple phones have yet to sport such advanced charging options and multi-tasking abilities, the sophisticated iOS 8 and A8 dual-core processors as well as its 1GB RAM are by no means behind Samsung.
The new smartphones will also feature Samsung Pay, which is designed to work with magnetic-stripe machines (MSM) that are readily available in the U.S. On the other hand, Apple’s mobile payment system, Apple Pay, uses near-field communication (NFC) that is yet to be as popular as MSM but is already gaining traction.
Our Take
Samsung has given its best to overcome its previous shortcomings by foregoing the plastic casing and unnecessary software bloat. We believe that though these smartphones come loaded with additional features, the performance of Samsung's customized software hasnt been so great in the past.
Also, Apple retains its edge in terms of technology and its unbeatable ecosystem, which increases its customers’ brand loyalty further. However, the timing of the launch is also critical. Had Samsung Galaxy S6 been launched before iPhone 6, the story could have been quite different.
We will have to wait to see if Galaxy S6 phones will allow the company to win back its lost glory and give it a new lease of life.
Currently, both Samsung and Apple have a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). A couple of similarly-ranked stocks that can be considered include Universal Electronics Inc. UEIC and VOXX International Corp. VOXX.
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