Customers dumping Samsung phones in wake of Apple suit Apple CEO Tim Cook might be pleased with the verdict in his company's recent patent legislation against Samsung, but Samsung customers are definitely not, according to the market watchers at mobile phone trade-in firm Gazelle. "Consumers seem to be jumping ship," Anthony Scarsella, Gazelle's "chief gadget officer," told …
" and customers might fear that Samsung will be even less likely to issue updates for models that it isn't allowed to sell anymore."
It would not be entirely irrational for customers to fear that they would get very little support for their phones if they are amongst the ones that are banned. Having said that of course there is a considerable head of steam developing behind the GSIII (not to be banned AFAIK) and a fair amount of this may be customers coming to the end of their current contracts and/or simply wanting the latest and greatest in the Galaxy series.
"It would not be entirely irrational for customers to fear that they would get very little support for their phones if they are amongst the ones that are banned"
Are these Galaxy S mobiles any of the banned ones?
Indeed they are. However it is just possible that some customers fear that future support may be lacking. However, another motivation for some customers may be the following. We know that many customers partially finance their next upgrade by selling their current phone. Given that the GSIII has made quite a splash we would expect to some extent a surge in earlier Galaxies coming on to e-bay. If this was also reinforced by some customers fearing that if they do not sell now they won't get as good a price at a later date one can see how the judgement against Samsung might play into this*. Having said that of course none of this IMHO suggests that punters are abandoning Samsung's flagship product, just that they are maybe upgrading earlier than they otherwise might have done.
*It might also be the case that give that the sales of the GSII in the States have been the largest of the Galaxy series so far, then the the apparently unusually high number of sales on e-bay are a function of Samsung's success in the States (larger customer base now) and that those sales are indeed largely provoked by the launch of the GSIII. Comparative statistics is a dangerous game!
I'm not a fan of either since I own neither a smartphone or a pad. and build my own PCs. The phones I have are cheap and cheerful and go a long time between charges. Of course this case was biased why do you think the judge put the date back? It's called damage limitation both for herself and pressure from above to try to work out a deal before the inevitable consequences of revenge for US protectionism.
It should probably be noted that the detail of the banned devices - and even the trial and verdict itself - has probably complete bypassed Joe Punter. And even if they did, they'd realise that any possible ban will affect new sales - their handset won't be confiscated or anything as dramatic as that.
As other have pertained to - this is probably just a blip in the normal "trade in the old before buying the new shiny" activity.
I just can't help but think that for all the hype, the market is very much "as you are". Iphone sales drop before a new product launch (and the iphone 5 is the most anticipated in a long time) and the SGS3 is a brilliant device that has had some good marketing and plenty of positive reviews and has really turned the screw on its Android rivals.
So really, there's nothing to see here to be honest.
And with that article, we see where the media go next with their attempts to make Apple look relevant. The stages have been:
"Iphone is number one!" (conveniently ignoring Nokia/Symbian)
"Iphone outsells Android!" (still ignoring Nokia/Symbian)
"Okay, so Android way outsells Iphone, but Apple are still the number one company!" (using an ill-defined "smartphone" definition to compare sales, and ignoring Nokia)
"Okay, so now Samsung outsell Apple even on just their 'smartphones', but the Iphone is still the best selling model!" (ignoring that comparing single models isn't fair, when Apple only have one per generation, and others have loads)
Now we have reached a stage where even just one single Android model, out of thousands, outsells the Iphone. (As an aside, given that this is also just the US, previously one of Apple's strongholds, that's also quite impressive for Samsung.) What do the media do now?:
"But, but ... demand for the next Iphone 5 that hasn't even been announced is through the roof!"
Not sure how demand is measured or is relevant when it hasn't been announced. Media hype may be through the roof, but media bias is nothing to be proud of. They've been harping on about "Iphone 5" for about 18 months now. Give it a rest, already!
It will be interesting to see how disappointed punters are when they "iPhone 5" or whatever it's called, looks pretty much like the iPhone they already have, as well as the iOS 6 interface and the only noticeable difference being some new Siri tricks and Apple Maps. We'll see how many do not stand in line for that.
Without know what they're dumping them for, it's hard to say. But if I loved my Samsung (hypothetical, I have a corporate blackberry), and was thinking of upgrading, I'd be also thinking 'maybe I should do it now before the judge slaps an injunction on all future sales'.
Is this happening? Probably. How much? Who knows?
This smells like a big load of FUD. Why would a phone owner rush to sell a phone based on the possibility that it might be withdrawn from sale due to a lawsuit? Is it not more likely that people are coming to the end of their contracts and selling so they can get the newest version, the Galaxy S3? Will we see a similar news story a few days after a new iPhone lands stating how they're dumping their precious Apple phones?
"Customers are rushing to offload old Samsung smartphones like the S and S2 so they can buy an S3 before Apple has them removed from shelves."
The S3 is not subject to the court order and is completely non-infringing... the patents that are being "infringed" are completely bogus anyway and hopefully will be tossed out in the do-over... especially when the prior art that Samsung was prevented from showing is actually permitted.
Thread poster said: "...before Apple has them removed from shelves"
i.e. in case Apple decide to go after the Galaxy SIII and have their new BFF Judge Koh or the ITC injunction it.
Apple still have plenty of more ammuniction (!) At one point, for example, Apple claimed that Google was infringing one of its patents on the process of unlocking a phone by swiping the screen. "Apple's argument that a tap is a zero-length swipe,"
There .. headline fixed ...
"Since the $1.05 billion verdict Friday .. customers of Samsung have been dumping their Android products on at least one major resale site", link
What did Samsung say when you contacted them for a comment on this factoid?
`The court decision, they point out, is creating a lot of uncertainty about Android upgrades .. “This will continue to hurt Android resale values,”', link
A much more plausible reason for this trade-in company claiming Samsung customers are unloading their Samsung phones in higher numbers is so that they can justify why they have started screwing Samsung customers on the trade-in value of their Samsung phones.
There probably is absolutely no change in the numbers trading in old Samsung devices, but this FUD gives the trade-in company a plausible excuse with which to make a bit more profit.
__________________________
Samsung Owner: "Why are you giving me 10% less this week than you were offering last week?"
Trade-In Company: "I'm sure you've seen the news, where Samsung lost the court case with Apple...so many Samsung customers have since got rid of their phones that it has flooded the market"
Samsung Owner: "YEAH, RIGHT! BULLSHIT!"
Indeed. Why would you cut yourself off from a product you already own because you're afraid someone else might not provide enhancements later?
There's no indication support would be withdrawn in any meaningful way. We aren't really expecting JellyBean on a Galaxy S. The worst case is a download server in Europe. How much interaction with Samsung does the typical phone user have?
"We aren't really expecting JellyBean on a Galaxy S" - well the good news is that the JellyBean upgrade is on it's way...
"How much interaction with Samsung does the typical phone user have?" - well I had quite a lot as the early Kies / Gal SII software interaction was rubbish. Thankfully the upgrade to ICS fixed this...
and I mean "possibly".
Well. A large proportion of smartphone users, especially iPhone users buy more for fashion and to be seen to be cool.
In recent times Samsung has started to seen to be cool, possibly in a geek chic kind of way amongst the shallower members of the public.
Now, In Merica, losing is seen as something only losers do. two plus two etc?
Probably complete dren, but just an idea.
Paris...typical airhead likes shiny precious things.
People are getting rid of old Samsung and buying new ones? Hell all I've been hearing lately from people is boycott Apple and being pro Samsung.
The only logic I could see from the increase is people wanting to offload their phones before the new iPhone is announced, which would impact the iPhone much more that Samsung. It's still a few weeks away and probably wouldn't impact Samsung prices as much.
Because of the pyrrhic victory of apple against Samsung, I went out yesterday and bought 8 samsung tab for my employees. NO ipoop in this office.
Funny, every time one of our employee tried to install some apple program on his/her laptop,( Early days of the pad) I had to spend a couple of hours re-fixing the systems!!! Might it be that apple hates Microsoft so much that they supply software that interferes with windows?? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
apple is trying to kill competition so that it can have the market to itself and charge a fortune for nothing. History has shown plenty of times that it's a floored approach. Moves are already afoot to put a time limit on the kind of patents apple has been fighting on.... History will show that apple won a battle and then lost the war.....
... and probably never will.
It does however seem that Samsung's mistake was NOT stealing a lot more ideas from a much wider range of victims. Indeed, this is how the iPhone was build - a fact promoted by Steve Jobs.
What an interesting world we live in. The stealing of a handful of ideas from one company costs your company in the region of $10 billion. Stealing the same handful of ideas, and 100 others from elsewhere, will probably cot you nothing, as no court in the world can determine which one (or few) made your product profitable.
*sigh*
I can't imagine many people dumping the phone immediately. I suppose there are some that would, partly because of fear of lack of upgrades and support, as the article mentioned, and I suppose there will be a few individuals that now think Samsung have done something immoral and so don't want to own their device anymore.
More than anything though, (unless other resellers come out and give information that supports this) the most likely explanation as far as I can see is that this Gazelle outfit is trolling for publicity.
Until a few others come out and say the same thing, I'll take this with a pinch of salt.
American Customers Should Be dumping Samsung phones in wake of Apple Suit - Says American Company With Vested Interest In Making Extra Money Out Of It- there, fixed that.
Yet more Sun/News Of The World style sensationalist crap from The Stars And Stripes Forever Register.
How the mighty fall when they land in Uncle Sam's pocket!
... or are El-Reg starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to "news".... I'm finding less and less articles interest me because they seem to be either simple re-hashes of stories from other sites with unsubstantiated links (People are dumping Samsung phones because of the court case... .I mean come on,....) or are just re-hashes of press releases (the Apple/Linux "trojan" story)..
Samsung are releasing a windows phone soon. Looks like realised android is a lost cause. But who would be surprised that an advertising company's OS isn't that good or original. The fact it values invading privacy over protecting developers from piracy say it all really.
Samsung have most certainly NOT left the Android cause, as you would know if you had anything to do with them. They produce a shit load of product, developed with a scatter gun approach (make lots, see what sells). It's just the SS way to add Windows to their product line to cover all the bases.
Android, BTW, is pretty good. ICS certainly is good, and JB is even better. Original? No phone OS's are particularly original. There hasn't been any OS innovation for years. Major improvements on the GUI on top of the OS are also pretty rare.
Either this firm is cashing in before they're left with Samsung trade ins they're blocked from selling
Or
Given this is a day after Koh pencilled in the product banning case for December rather than the september Apple wanted, you have to wonder if there is a connection to help inflict immediate damage via the media propaganda machine......
Google has just launched a law suit against Apple for using the Motorola patents in the iPhone and iPad devices. There is no doubt about Apple's guilt in this as they readily admitted using Motorola patents in their devices without paying because Jobs reckoned Motorola were charging too much.
Apple's only defence will be around patent pricing, which will almost certainly fail and could lead to a total US wide ban on iPhone and iPad sales, if Google were that way inclined. This will affect every single iPad and iPhone version currently released, and possibly include the iPhone 5.
This is largely the reason Google bought the loss making Motorola Mobility business, it's debts as a tax write off and it's portfolio of well defined patents.
Patently, this is all good for us customers because...?
Daft yanks. Ain't happening in sane countries.
Typical Reg to pitch the story the way it has.
I'm begining to realise, you've got the take alot of the reg hacks stories with a HUGE pinch of salt.
And, I don't believe for 1 second people are moving to the dark side in fear of their older handset not being "supported". What support does one need?
You buy a phone and insure it for loss/damage. You use it, Done! I've NEVER EVER needed any other type of "support". The whole notion must be a fannyboi thing, those that need to be held and kept feeling all loved up and secure??
So one little trade in company has a "50 per cent increase in the number of customers looking to unload Samsung kit since Monday alone".
What can you read into that? 50% of what? 2 people?
Obviously you can infer that there's some mass exodus going on. Pleases the Apple camp and keeps the said little trade-in company happy through a nice free advert hoping that people will panic and sell their phones fast before the price drops further.
"you might think customers would be rushing to buy up the remaining stock of Samsung devices while they're still on shelves, not unloading the ones they already have"
Surely that's entirely consistent with this (anecdotal) evidence? If I'm a Samsung user deciding to rush out now to get the latest Samsung, I'm likely going to get rid of my old Samsung.
Honestly, I fail to see how 2nd hand sales tells us anything. Plus this is a classic case of "let's pick some anecdotal comment, and twist it to be in Apple's favour". Meanwhile, actual factual news such as Samsung and even Nokia outselling Apple again and again, or Apple's slide in sales on 10 million phones last quarter alone, is conveniently given little press by most the media.
This is good news for Android, as it means these older phones have a chance to remain in use 2nd hand, rather than being dumped in a drawer or thrown away, keeping the installed userbase up.
The US is the largest smartphone market? I assume those figures quoted are the ill-defined Apple-biased ones that compare 100% of Apple's sales to only a fraction of Samsung's (and Nokia's etc). There is no sensible definition of "smartphone" that includes all Iphones, but doesn't include Samsung's "feature" phones. "Smart" vs "feature" is just a marketing term chosen by those companies.
You might as well list who is first in sales of "Phones that start with a lowercase letter in their name".
Id like to think this would lead to a glut of second hand sammys that i could grab to upgrade some of the older dumb-phones in the family.. but sadly its all just spin from a company with a vested interest in driving used prices down.
This stuff really does make me doubt that I will ever buy anything Apple with my own hard earned, and where I have a choice I will take a proffered non fruity unit. I'm not interested in paying a premium for some illusion of premium quality for mass produced crud from China.
If you lined up 10 Samsung Galaxy (x) users and 10 iPhone users and asked them
"What do you think about the result of the recent Samsung Vs. Apple patent lawsuit?"
You would probably get 80% blank expressions followed by getting their phones out and Googling "Recent Samsung Vs. Apple Lawsuit"
You must remember that most IT professionals have smart phones but most smart phone users are not IT professionals. As such, don't know and don't care about these things; they just want to instagram their roast dinner and tweet about the latest pregnant celebrity.
Assuming the stats are accurate, I can't see any reason why people would be trading in their old samsung phones for a new iPhone, which is what the article implies.
I suspect what is happening is that loyal Samsung customers are trading up from an old Samsung model to a new one in case the new one gets banned (or because they think all Samsung phones are being banned).
Makes no sense. Sounds like a typical datascrape-mistaken-for-information-by-markters example to me.
I once saw a newspaper article where it was proven that statistically women were five times more likely to get cancer if they became nuns, which only goes to illustrate what Olly White said in nineteen seventy mumble: Computers can't make a broken [manual] system work, they can only demonstrate it breaking faster.
Enough "smart phone" war footage! I want my old Bakelite twisted pair handset back!
Wow, they couldn't wait until the appeal ( or even the ban) before the paid apple barkers start creating FUDD. Well, let me just put my vote in, after the settlement I will go out of my way to buy Samsung - and counsel my clients and friends to drop Apple. If apple doesn't think this will affect their bottom line just look at Microsoft!
An American jury (Judge) on an American (supposedly) product versus a "foreign" manufacturer - how can that not be biased even though Apple did not definitively prove patent infringement? Wake up folks! I don't care personally as I will keep using my newly acquired Galaxy Note clone which provides all the features I need - I don't need any apple product and never will buy their overpriced and feature limited offerings.
Stop Press...
Company buying second hand phones decides to drop prices it pays for them based on news article.
Funny that eh?
I cannot think of ANYONE I know, who would SELL their phone because Apple won a court judgement.
Quite frankly most people could not give a dam what Apple win in court - they really do not care.
Once they have bought the phone job done.
Most of these phones arer sold on contract and users cannot sell them anyway.
So I can only think it is to do with them trading their old phone in to get a new one.
Probably a Samsung S3 because they rather like it. They certainly will not be selling them to buy an Apple phone when the new phone is out in a few weeks time.
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