Even as its smartphone sales explode and appear set to cruise past Apple during the current quarter to take the top spot in the market, Samsung has instituted "a new information policy" that will see the company cease public reporting of its quarterly phone sales numbers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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While industry analysts will still be able to make some reasonable estimates of Samsung's phone shipments going forward, the new tight-lipped policy will make performance comparisons between market leaders more difficult.
"As competition intensifies, there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own businesses," Robert Yi, Samsung's chief of investor relations, said on the call. He declined a request for further explanation.
The report notes that Samsung may have implemented the new policy at least in part due to its legal dispute with Apple, fearing that concrete comparisons between its shipments and Apple's could harm its case. Apple has accused Samsung of copying Apple's designs with its own Android-based products, which have seen tremendous success over the past several years.
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What Mr. Yi said: "... there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own businesses ..."
What Mr. Yi meant: We will hide the fact that Apple is beating us so our stock won't tank.
The report notes that Samsung may have implemented the new policy at least in part due to its legal dispute with Apple, fearing that concrete comparisons between its shipments and Apple's could harm its case.
Exactly. ;)It appears even Samsung realizes there a limits to how blatantly they can play the game they're playing.
What Mr. Yi said: "... there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own businesses ..."
What Mr. Yi meant: We will hide the fact that Apple is beating us so our stock won't tank.
I think he meant that it looks like they might end up paying Apple a fee for each Android phone sold and they want to be able to minimize the number.
One second after those voluntary disclosures provide any negative effects or risk doing so for any reason, they actually have an obligation to protect shareholders, even if that means being less forthcoming.
Apple itself has concatenated product lines into categories for the same reason. But if they felt it was a risk to shareholders to even report those figures they could step back from that.
So fine.
But nonetheless it is funny to us non shareholders, Samsung has to do this! :D
Rocketman