Samsung Misses Sales Estimate Due to Increased Competition

Just after a period when spectators thought that Samsung would dominate the global phone market, things are beginning to look down for the company. Samsung’s net income clocked in at USD6.7 billion in 4Q 2013, far short of the USD7.6 billion consensus estimate, while operating income in Samsung’s mobile unit decreased from 3Q 2013 to USD5.1 billion. Analysts state that inexpensive phones and competition from the iPhone line is making a dent in Samsung’s market appeal.

“Samsung’s two major challenges for 2014 are to maintain its mobile-phone leadership in China and the U.S., while simultaneously growing its tablet business quickly enough to knock Apple iPad from its perch,” [Neil Mawston, an executive director at researcher Strategy Analytics,] said.

The company shipped 9 million units of the S4 in the fourth quarter, according to a Jan. 8 report from Daewoo Securities Co., lower than its earlier estimate of 13 million units, released on Dec. 23. In the third quarter, Samsung sold 17 million units, Daewoo said.

Samsung is now attempting to cut costs in its mobile division and increase efficiency in the company as a whole. Apple is planned to sell 50 million iPhones in 1Q 2014, which doesn’t make Samsung’s hurdle any easier to combat. The company’s watch lineup is expected to appeal to users, however that has not been evidenced yet.

PlayStation 4 vs Xbox One

In one of the newer battles of the console wars, the PlayStation fanboys got a win! One week ago, in a landslide victory, the PlayStation 4 beat out the Xbox One (winning every category available) to claim IGN’s People’s Choice Award, and start an internet flame war that spread throughout the internet, with both sides calling names and getting angry.

All Xbox fanboys claimed that the award doesn’t matter, since it’s “just a measure of fanboys”, whereas the PlayStation fans feel that the award is a sign of how superior the PS4 is.

We feel that it’s too early to come to a decisive conclusion about the best console, and that all this rabbling about which console is best is pretty idiotic, considering that the consoles don’t have near enough titles to judge, and they’re likely to change from now to next year. People forget that consoles change over time, with changes in policy, UI updates, and exclusives all changing users’ opinions over time.

On that note, how about exclusives? We think most people would agree that first-party games are essential to a console’s launch. A front that both PS4 and Xbox One failed on (I’m looking at you Knack and Ryse). So until adequate first- and third-party games come out, criticism on consoles should be taken lightly, especially if it’s by a random fanboy online.