Jim Dalrymple Calls Bullshit on Samsung Smartphone Numbers

Today Samsung officially announced its financial results for the third-quarter, and while they didn’t release the number of smartphone units sold, that hasn’t stopped Strategy Analytics from declaring them the unit sales leader in smartphones.

Strategy Analytics has compiled the third-quarter results of all smartphone manufacturers and stated that Samsung [has] becomes the world’s number one smartphone vendor in Q3 2011. The report states that Samsung shipped 27.8 million smartphones and raked in a global market share of 23.8%. While Apple slipped to second place with 17.1 million iPhones sold durning the same period, representing a global market share of 14.6%.

Jim Dalrymple, from at The Loop, has made a keen observation. He notes that the Samsung numbers are “shipped”, while the iPhone numbers are “sold”.

You cannot compare shipped numbers to sold numbers and come up with a conclusion that one company is beating another. You can’t.

Going on to conclude:

Samsung could ship 100 million phones, but that doesn’t tell us how many they actually sold.

As well as conflating shipments with actual sales, Strategy Analytics has estimated Samsung’s sales numbers of 27.8 million.

With the recent release of the iPhone 4S, Apple is expecting all-time record iPhone sales during the current quarter.

[Business Week, The Loop]

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Khanhtphan
Khanhtphan
14 years ago

“What do you think? Are the Samsung numbers “bullshit” as Dalrymple suggests?”
Um… Refer to this:

“Jim Dalrymple, from at The Loop, has made a keen observation. He notes that theSamsung numbers are “shipped”, while the iPhone numbers are “sold”.”

If this is the truth, then is there even an argument about whether these numbers compared to Apple, are bullshit?

Joris van schilt
14 years ago

So samsung just ships out phones for fun? Yeah RIGHT!

Joris van schilt
14 years ago

So samsung just ships out phones for fun? Yeah RIGHT!

Barrettneil
Barrettneil
Reply to  Joris van schilt
14 years ago

Yes they do if they want to make it look like they are on top of the cell market!
In six months you’ll see all kinds of Samsungs go on sale to try and get rid of them.

Papa
Papa
14 years ago

I don’t think Samsung would ship cellphones without retailers asking for them! Otherwise the cost of warehousing would be on retailers which makes no sense. Maybe Samsung hasn’t sold 100% of total shipped, but even if we take 90% sold, that would be surpassing apples sold numbers!

Anonymous
Anonymous
Reply to  Papa
14 years ago

True … Unless Samsung offered some kind of incentive for retailers to order in bulk numbers … Not to mention that many retailers over estimate demand … Except with the iPhone.

Shameer Mulji
Reply to  Papa
14 years ago

90% sold is pretty ambitious.  I doubt they’re that popular.  Maybe in Korea, but not here.  Besides, there should be a standard definition of what sold means and it should mean sold to consumers since they’re the ones who buy and use these devices.  That would more accurately predict market share rather than sold to retailers.

Don
Don
14 years ago

Well I bet there was a point in time that HP shipped more touchpads that any other tablet sold…

Don
Don
Reply to  Don
14 years ago

And shipped could simply mean they left the manufacturing facility and are now collecting dust in Samsung wharehouses around the world…

Anonymous
Anonymous
14 years ago

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Anonymous
Anonymous
14 years ago

This guy’s blog is (mainly) about Apple news and he’s a self-professed Apple Polisher… yea, of course he’s going to call bulls*it on those numbers.  His creditably  however, is highly suspect.  

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