The Note 7 failure and strong iPhone 7 sales give iOS its largest US growth rate in two years

There are always two sides to a coin and when it comes to smartphones too, and we are talking about the truly high end of the bunch, it boils down to if you are a lover of the Android platform or the Apple devices. For the iOS platform, there is little competition there as the only vendor of such products is Apple but going from there and crossing into the scene where Android is the order of the day, there are a lot of manufacturers vying for the top post with the most consistent being Samsung and frankly speaking, they are the only ones capable of waging a war against the domination of Apple and tits revolutionary tech in the market. This year was no exception as these two were expected to go head to head again and with the offering of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, we knew that Samsung was paving the way for even more greatness to come and that thy did. Long before the due date for the announcement and release of either devices that Apple would be dropping in the market for the year, Samsung toiled day and night and did everything possible to speed up the production process for a device that they hoped would fight against Apple’s iPhones of the year till the last drop of blood in its veins, and this was what birthed the Galaxy Note 7.
To be candid, the Note 7 had it all. It was running on the latest Android platform as at the time of launch, was using a very powerful chipset that was developed by both Samsung and QUALCOMM based on which variant you choose, packed so many sensors we started to doubt it was an ordinary mobile phone and featured what could be called the masterclass of designs on a mobile phone, not forgetting the beautiful stylus pen that was remembered attached to it. It was launched into the market, and it wasn’t long before people started to have good things to say about the piece of hardware and just as things started to look up for Samsung, the first unit of this device decided to go boom.
That started to spell the woes for Samsung, and by the time they would acknowledge that the problem is truly a manufacturing defect and was the fault of the bad batteries in some select units, the iPhones had already been announced. In a year that all seemed to be going well for Samsung, even more so due to the fact that Apple didn’t introduce any new technology with their devices asides from the dual camera that they adopted on the Plus variant but rather, jut decided to bump up a few specs here and there, everything was over before it even began and Samsung were left to lick their wounds. As days, weeks and months passed by, Apple is further rubbing salt onto Samsung’s injury by having capitalised on the ill fate off the Note 7 and the fragile reputation that Samsung has now to push their handhelds to the forefront of the high-end market, and that has paid off real big, ensuring that the Cupertino-based company records one of the largest sales percents in the US, and in the c ourse of two years.
When users started to dump the Note 7 initially and return it for replacements, an estimated 90% of customers showed brand loyalty and decided to stick with the brand but when even the replacement units that were deemed safe by the company started to behave like bombs on their own, that number reduced drastically and Samsung had little-left customers who were willing to exchange for another device. While some got a refund and ported to other Android manufacturers (of which Huawei was the major gainer here), others just simply decided that they were done with Android and jumped ship to the nearest iPhone 7 unit that they could lay their hands on. The Apple flagships being in the same price range made this transition even easier and faster for them.
According to analysts, of which respected KGI analyst Ming-Kun Cho is one of them, it is believed that an additional 8 million iPhone 7 units would be sold on the back of Samsung’s ill-luck and from the logical point of view, it is not hard to see how they arrived at this conclusion. The lovers of high-end phones and the tech savvy individuals would surely want the latest to call their own, and since Samsung is not a player anymore (plus the S7 and S7 Edge were already a few months old already), the iPhones would be the most logical choice for them to go for. Also, the holidays are here already, and phone sales would be at an all-time high like always. If there is no Samsung in the way to sway the minds of people when choices are being made, and there are impressive (relative) Apple phones in a display, it stands to reason that it would be the best choice to go for an iOS based platform at that very instant.
The launch of the iPhone 7 units for this year could not have been more aptly timed, coming at a very fortunate time for Apple when the first wave of issues was recorded with the Note 7 and for now, the only way Samsung can look for the redemption of some market share and just to make sure that Apple doesn’t run them into the ground is to keep the Galaxy S7 units afloat and interesting while planning for an early launch of the interesting Galaxy S8 which hopefully, would not be another ticking time bomb.