It’s worth taking a peek at Samsung’s latest results. In Q1 (to March), the Korean firm grew revenue by 22%, with operating profit up 98%. Impressive numbers indeed.
But the real headline grabbers are the soaring mobile device numbers. As is being widely reported, Samsung overtook Nokia to become the world’s no.1 phone manufacturer in the quarter. Indeed with 93.5m units sold globally, it accounted for 1 in 4 of all phone sales. Samsung also sold nearly ten million more smartphones than Apple, albeit across a much wider range of devices and price points than Apple with its single smartphone offering. And of course Apple’s margin per device remains superior.
When we published our BYOT opportunities and threats report last week, we highlighted some winners and losers from the evolving bring-your-own trend. Samsung was in the former category. Its results remind us that Apple - another big winner - will not have things all its own way. Given the chance to select mobile devices for themselves, many smartphone buyers globally are opting for Android over Apple, and Samsung is the foremost Android device brand at present.
Whether Samsung and other Android manufacturers can repeat this popularity in tablets remains to be seen. Samsung reports “brisk sales” of its Note phone-tablet hybrid in the quarter, but it remains a long, long way behind the volumes of iPads being shipped. Overall, however, both technology buyers and suppliers would do well to gear up for the arrival (if it hasn’t happened already) of Android devices - including those from Samsung - in the workplace.