Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
iPhone 7's Lack of 'Compelling' Features Convinced Most Galaxy Note7 Owners to Stay With Samsung
In a recent piece by The Wall Street Journal, hardware analyst Stephen Baker commented on the state of holiday sales figures for both Apple and Samsung. While many believed Apple would have it easy this season due to Samsung's Galaxy Note7 crisis, Baker said that "Apple's own lack of a wowing product this year" meant that woeful Note7 owners opted for other high-end Galaxy phones, and not the iPhone 7.
Ultimately, the two analysts admitted that both Apple and Samsung "made mistakes this year that cost them growth." Sharma said that "the timing couldn’t have been worse for Samsung and it couldn’t have been better for Apple. But the truth is neither company capitalized this year.”
In the first few days of December, financial firm Oppenheimer summed up the current negative cloud surrounding Apple -- fueled by mixed-to-negative consumer reception and its first revenue decline since 2003 -- and stated that the company could be heading into a "decade-long malaise" if it doesn't turn things around.
“Most of those who bought or wanted to buy a Note 7 opted for a different high-end Galaxy phone,” Mr. Baker said. “Samsung was able to fend off other Android competition, and Apple, too, thanks to Apple’s own lack of a wowing product this year.”Apple decided to not release the first weekend sales numbers for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus back in September, because it felt the results were "no longer a representative metric" due to demand outweighing supply. Samsung officially halted sales of the Galaxy Note7 worldwide in early October, but another industry analyst, Chetan Sharma, continued Baker's thread by commenting on the iPhone 7's lack of "a compelling enough feature set," which wasn't enough to convince owners of potentially exploding Note7 devices to switch ecosystems.
“Apple has the strongest ecosystem, with its hardware, software and app and content stores,” said consumer tech and mobile industry consultant Chetan Sharma. “IPhone users looking for an upgrade stick with Apple. But in a year when Samsung dropped the ball in a huge way,” he said, Apple “didn’t have a phone with a compelling enough feature set to lure Samsung owners away.”Earlier this week, Yahoo-owned mobile analytics firm Flurry released data surrounding the top device activations by manufacturer between 12/19 and 12/25, confirming that Apple was again at the top of the list with 44 percent activations, while Samsung came in second at 21 percent. In comparison to the previous year, Apple dropped from 49 percent and Samsung climbed slightly from 19 percent.
Ultimately, the two analysts admitted that both Apple and Samsung "made mistakes this year that cost them growth." Sharma said that "the timing couldn’t have been worse for Samsung and it couldn’t have been better for Apple. But the truth is neither company capitalized this year.”
In the first few days of December, financial firm Oppenheimer summed up the current negative cloud surrounding Apple -- fueled by mixed-to-negative consumer reception and its first revenue decline since 2003 -- and stated that the company could be heading into a "decade-long malaise" if it doesn't turn things around.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tags: Samsung, Galaxy Note 7
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Top Rated Comments
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32 months ago
People get upset over a headphone jack,
That's because people need and use the headphone jack. Schiller said it took courage to remove the headphone jack, yet I can no longer listen to music with my headphones and have it charging. Also if it took courage, why did they include it in the new MacBook Pro?
32 months ago
iPhone7 - Lack of innovation, same two generation old design,headphone jack removed which millions of people use every day
32 months ago
I'm glad Apple is waiting and taking their time with the redesign. Remember - Apple is never first, but usually always the best.
People get upset over a headphone jack, but not over an exploding phone. And yet people question the values of Apple and not Samsung.
I would argue the dual camera / telescopic zoom is a major feature as the jump in camera quality between the 6s is quite large.
People get upset over a headphone jack, but not over an exploding phone. And yet people question the values of Apple and not Samsung.
I would argue the dual camera / telescopic zoom is a major feature as the jump in camera quality between the 6s is quite large.
32 months ago
Can't say that I'm overly surprised. I think the iPhone 7 is a nice phone, but its not that much different the 6s. There's a fairly large disparity on features with Android phones vs. the iPhone
32 months ago
How are you a moderator on an Apple site?
If you can't make sense of it there really isn't any other way to explain it
As pointed out, Apple made a statement about how antqiuated the headphone jack is, and yet they included it in the MBP
Beside, I already said the iPhone 7 is a nice phone, my wife has one. I think its good, but I am critical of them removing something that many of us use.
As I stated, I cannot use the iPhone 7, having it charging and listen to music on my headphones - something I do all the time.
32 months ago
They removed the headphone jack to make space in a tiny device - the MacBook Pro is considerabley larger than the iPhone.
I think the reason people are confused by Apple retaining the headphone socket in the new MBP is because of the outright condemnation of the same socket by Apple executives when the iPhone 7 was announced.The audio connector is more than 100 years old", "It had its last big innovation about 50 years ago. You know what that was? They made it smaller. It hasn't been touched since then. It's a dinosaur. It's time to move on", "We are removing the audio jack because we have developed a better way to deliver audio", "We've got this 50-year-old connector -- just a hole filled with air -- and it's just sitting there taking up space, really valuable space"
If they genuinely feel it's that bad and outdated, wouldn't you expect them to remove it from all of their new product releases?
32 months ago
I agree. The iPhone 7 doesn't have any "wow" factor to it. More just things we have come to expect because the other manufactures already do most of it (aside from dual camera) but for the general user... I don't think that's much to care about and we have come to expect the faster graphics and CPU every year anyway so that's nothing new either. I kept my iPhone 6 Plus. Nothing I cared about in 6S or the 7 so far. I'm hoping the 2017 iPhone changes that.
32 months ago
The Note 7 was THE BEST phone on the planet .The design truly was beautiful and they truly had outmanoeuvred Apple on this one. Apple was on the platter ready for the taking until Samsung messed up
32 months ago
So what is the truth ? Seems so many places are writing articles as clickbait. One minute everyone jumps to iPhone , the next they stay with Samsung.
Just use whatever phone u guys have and enjoy
Just use whatever phone u guys have and enjoy
32 months ago
How are you a moderator on an Apple site?
If you can't make sense of it there really isn't any other way to explain it
Maybe he isn't a blind Apple loyalist who defends every move they make no matter what? Maybe he likes Apple products but *gasp* doesn't think Apple is perfect? Maybe he is objective? Just a thought.
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