Samsung have just announced their 3 Galaxy S II variants for AT&T, Sprint and T-mobile. The devices are a little different because the carriers wanted them like that to “differentiate” between each other, but they are basically the same Galaxy S II we all know and love. Samsung managed to sell 5 million of them in Europe and Asia in 85 days, or one every 1.5 seconds. Could they repeat this success in USA? I think they will.
But all of that might not matter. The Samsung Galaxy S II has been getting rave reviews and free publicity ever since it launched in May this year, and it has been getting a big following of users who swear by it. The popularity of the smartphone abroad has made a lot of people in USA excited about it, too. Even if the Nexus Prime will turn out to be a significantly better phone overall, I don’t think it will manage to over-shadow Galaxy S II’s popularity by the end of the year.
So could the Galaxy S II outsell the iPhone 5? Normally, I’d say no. So far the iPhone has been just one device and Apple puts all its marketing weight behind it when it’s launched, and also throughout the year. Plus, it benefits from the years of successful track record and branding. It would be too soon for the Galaxy S II to beat the iPhone one-on-one in number of units.
But, this time there may be an exception to that. The “iPhone” sales are predicted to be 22 million in the next quarter, which is 1 million more than last quarter. But this prediction also says that 80% of those sales will be the cheaper iPhone 4S version, which leaves only about 5 million iPhone 5′s to be sold in Q4. Now that’s a number that the Galaxy S II could much more easily beat, as it has already achieved that number in less than a quarter when being sold in Europe and some Asian countries.
So this would give the Galaxy S II a much better chance of becoming the #1 most popular high-end smartphone in USA, and for the first time in the past few years, the iPhone 5 might not be the most popular global smartphone.
The Android Competition
Because the Galaxy S II came out in May in Europe and Asia, which is 4 months ago, this means that the Galaxy S II won’t be the most powerful Android smartphone on the market. It will have competition such as Google’s Nexus Prime and HTC Vigor, both which are rumored to have dual core 1.5 Ghz processors, and both with a higher resolution than the GS II, 1280×720 and 960×540. The Galaxy S II won’t be sold on Verizon, but it will still have competition there in the form of Motorola’s Droid Bionic, which is a little less impressive with only a dual core 1 Ghz OMAP 4430 processor, although rumors point to a very impressive battery life, which is always a strong “feature” of any phone.But all of that might not matter. The Samsung Galaxy S II has been getting rave reviews and free publicity ever since it launched in May this year, and it has been getting a big following of users who swear by it. The popularity of the smartphone abroad has made a lot of people in USA excited about it, too. Even if the Nexus Prime will turn out to be a significantly better phone overall, I don’t think it will manage to over-shadow Galaxy S II’s popularity by the end of the year.
The iPhone 5 Competition
The iPhone 5 is rumored to appear sometime around early October. It will have a dual core A5 chip, possibly slightly upgraded, a slightly bigger screen (latest rumor says only 3.7″), a metal body (smarter choice compared to the glass body in iPhone 4, in my opinion), and a 8 MP camera. It would be a pretty strong competition to the Galaxy S II on the spec level, too.So could the Galaxy S II outsell the iPhone 5? Normally, I’d say no. So far the iPhone has been just one device and Apple puts all its marketing weight behind it when it’s launched, and also throughout the year. Plus, it benefits from the years of successful track record and branding. It would be too soon for the Galaxy S II to beat the iPhone one-on-one in number of units.
But, this time there may be an exception to that. The “iPhone” sales are predicted to be 22 million in the next quarter, which is 1 million more than last quarter. But this prediction also says that 80% of those sales will be the cheaper iPhone 4S version, which leaves only about 5 million iPhone 5′s to be sold in Q4. Now that’s a number that the Galaxy S II could much more easily beat, as it has already achieved that number in less than a quarter when being sold in Europe and some Asian countries.
So this would give the Galaxy S II a much better chance of becoming the #1 most popular high-end smartphone in USA, and for the first time in the past few years, the iPhone 5 might not be the most popular global smartphone.
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