So it's a well-known fact at this point that Samsung is the number one smartphone maker in the world. A position they have been holding ever since they surpassed Nokia in 2012 ending their 14-year long reign at the top.
2022 marks a full decade that this event took place and none of the companies including Apple even came close to taking that crown back from Samsung. But there's one key market where Samsung has failed to take the top spot, a market where Apple has stayed at the top every single year ever since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone. Yes, I'm talking about the United States of America.
It's THE most important market for every smartphone company because the Unites States is by far the world’s largest market for flagship mobile devices. Flagships have higher profit margins so it's no wonder why companies want to succeed in this market.
Apple is comfortably holding the top spot year after year with Samsung being a close second. But Samsung wants to change that this year and has come up with a new strategy for increasing its phone sales in North America and catching up with Apple.
The Korea Herald reports that 40 Samsung executives met in Las Vegas ahead of CES 2022 to discuss this year’s smartphone strategy and it is being reported that the plan has the 'Tiger' acronym. Tiger stands for: True No. 1 in all product categories Improve flagship market share Closing the “Gap between Apple,” “Expanding” their product portfolio, and aiming for a “Record year.” Also, Samsung's mobile chief said and I quote “Our Mobile Experience vision is to shift from a smartphone vendor to an intelligent device company. We will not be a tech brand, but a brand beloved by young generations, providing the innovative experience.”
All of this sounds great but surpassing Apple in the US is not going to be an easy task and one of the big reasons for it is the message. People rarely use iMessage in the rest of the world but in the US it's a deal-breaker for a lot of people.
Samsung says they will appeal more to younger generations but unless those younger generations in the US don't feel the pressure to be a part of the blue text group, it's not going to be easy for Samsung to make people switch brands. iMessage amounts to serious lock-in not because alternatives don't exist but because Apple has created this environment where these teens turn up their noses when they see green bubbles in the chat.
As a result, Teens ask for iPhones from their parents fearing if they use Android they too might be looked down upon if they became an Android green bubble. Even Google's senior vice president criticized Apple today saying that it's disingenuous for Apple which one hand boasts about how they care about humanity and saving the world but on the other hand uses bullying and peer pressure to sell more iPhones.
There are no real technical or product reasons for Apple to not make iMessage for Android but they know that it would remove an obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones. So unless Samsung and Google convince the teens in the US that i message is not the end of the world, taking that top spot from Apple in the US is going to be hard.
