Samsung's Galaxy S7 family has outsold Apple's iPhone 6S family in the US mobile market. That's the claim made by Kantar Worldpanel's latest report. Apple can take comfort from the customer loyalty numbers, but it will mean much more to Samsung as DJ Koh works to restore the company's income and revenue from mobile hardware.
Kantar's report states that in the three-month period ending in May 2016, Samsung saw all of its devices capture 37 percent of the US market, compared to Apple's 29 percent. The Galaxy S7 family (the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and S7 Active) represented 16 percent, while Apple's iPhone 6S combination managed 14.6 percent.
Looking at the normal two-year cycle for smartphone contracts, the Galaxy S7's main audience would have been from the poorly received Galaxy S5 - a workmanlike but not stunning flagship. It has worked hard to retain those renewing older handsets to bring them to the S7, and brought in more new users as well. In the face of falling revenue and profits in the mobile division, some smart strategy around the release timetable saw the Galaxy S7 hand Samsung a positive outlook for the first time in two years.
Apple will take some solace in the high level of loyalty shown by its customers, with 88 percent of those intending to purchase a new device in the next year staying with the iPhone. That's a key factor in maintaining Apple's levels of revenue and profit this year.
Apple will also note that the three-month period in this survey represents the first three months of sales of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, while the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus were not only six months old, but had been superseded by the iPhone SE. Samsung would likely counter that it took some time to get the Galaxy S7 into the retail market, so Apple had an extra two weeks of sales for the flagship handset comparison.
Both Apple and Samsung can draw comfort from this report in the upcoming battle between the new iPhone 7 family and the class defining Galaxy Note 7, but it's Samsung that has the stronger case. The launch of the Galaxy S7 was a critical point in DJ Koh's management of the mobile department and all the evidence coming out points to it being a success.
The public will pick up on the resurgence of interest in Samsung. The questions over Apple holding back the new technology for the iPhone 8 may lead to questions about the iPhone 7 in consumers minds. And beating Apple in the US market (where it had home field advantage) will give Samsung a confidence boost ahead of the release of the Note 7 early next month.
Samsung goes into the 'Note 7 vs iPhone 7' autumn battle with momentum on its side, while Apple is once more placed on the defensive back foot.
Now Watch My Review Of The Galaxy S7 Edge:
