Samsung Seeking Growth in the Booming Tech 'Wearables' Market

This article was originally published  by TheStreet on July 17, 2014.

By Sarfaraz A. Khan

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Samsung (SSNLF_) -- the South Korean electronics giant that makes Galaxy, one of the world's most popular smartphones -- is looking to solidify its foothold in the market of wearable devices by teaming up with apparel and accessories maker Under Armour (UA_) .

South Korea's Yonhap news agency has reported that Lee Jay-yong, vice chairman of Samsung's electronics division and the heir apparent to the top job, met with Under Armour founder and CEO Kelvin Plank earlier this month. The meeting could be a response to the long-standing partnership between Samsung's biggest rival, Apple (AAPL_), and Under Amour competitor Nike (NKE_).

According to research firm IDC, the wearables market is expected to grow almost 80% per year through 2018. Samsung already dominates the smartwatch marketplace and is looking to expand beyond wrist-wearables. 

Samsung Takes Aim At Google's Revenues

This article was originally published by Seeking Alpha on June 20, 2014.

By Sarfaraz A. Khan. Research Asst. Ali Ilahi

Summary: Samsung has played a crucial role in making Google’s Android the world’s most popular mobile platform.Samsung has finally launched its highly anticipated Tizen based smartphone, the first of its kind, in a bid to reduce its reliance on Android.This, however, is not just about one smartphone as Samsung’s move can have far reaching implications.
 
Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) (OTC:SSNGY) has been looking for an alternative to Google's (GOOG) (GOOGL) Android for the last couple of years. It has been working with Intel (INTC) to develop Tizen, a Linux- based open source operating system that, so far, has not gained any meaningful foothold in the industry.

Samsung Is Better Positioned For Long Term Growth Than Apple

By Sarfaraz A. Khan and Gohar Yousuf

Samsung (SSNLF) looks in a better position for long term growth than Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) due to its dominating market share, a strategic shift towards software, its enormous project pipeline and diverse revenue base that goes well beyond mobile devices. 

One of the leading IT research firms Gartner has released its estimates for the global mobile phone sales during the third quarter of 2013. According to the firm, about 456 million mobile phones were sold in the previous quarter, showing a year-over-year increase of 5.7%. Of these, a little more than 250 million were smartphones whose sales rose 45.8% from the same quarter in 2012. Once again, the South Korean consumer electronics behemoth Samsung (SSNLF) has retained the title of the world’s biggest smartphone, and the world’s biggest mobile, phone vendor (in terms of units sold). 

Market Share

In the previous quarter, Samsung was able to extend its lead over its biggest smartphone rival Apple (AAPL). The Korean firm was able to maintain its market share at 32.1%, but the increase in the size of the market translated into a 46% increase in the number of smartphones sold to 80.36 million units. On other hand, Apple’s market share has dropped by 2.2 percentage points to 12.1% as Apple could only manage a 23% year-over-year increase in sales. However, if Apple had released the new iPhones earlier, then the numbers … read full article at GuruFocus

This Gadget Maker Is Diversifying

From The Motley Fool

Earlier in June, the South Korean consumer electronics behemoth Samsung Electronics (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) shed $12 billion in market cap after several analyst downgrades due to fears regarding the slowdown in sales of its Galaxy S4 smartphone.

Unlike Apple, Samsung manufactures a large variety of phones, of which the low-end ones have been doing great around the world, effectively fending off competition from the Chinese rivals, but the growth of its higher margin high end smartphone -- the Galaxy S series -- has been waning. The brisk growth of the lower margin operation could eventually drag Samsung’s profitability lower.

The fears were confirmed in its second quarter results which came in below estimates (that led to even more downgrades), but the company is now eyeing growth in the lucrative storage devices industry that is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

Apple Heats Up Competition In This Key Emerging Market

From Seeking Alpha

Smartphone appetite among consumers of one of the most populous countries of the world, India, has been increasing. In the first quarter of 2013, smartphone shipments to the country rose by 64% year-over-year to 5.7 million units. The global smartphone market leaders Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (SSNHY.OB) have been doing aggressive sales promotion while fighting for the market share with local rivals and Nokia (NOK). Meanwhile LG Electronics (LG) and HTC (HTCCY.OB) have set ambitious targets for themselves and could pose a significant threat to the smartphone market share of Sony (SNE) and Nokia. In this article, we will have a look at the performance of Apple and some of the biggest players in India's smartphone market.

Although Apple's impressive growth in the country poses no significant threat to Samsung, but it will certainly create problems for Nokia, LG, HTC and Sony in India's smartphone sector .... Read More

The Numbers Behind Apple’s Sluggish Growth

From The Motley Fool, dated May 3, 2013

So Apple’s growth has been slowing down, but exactly by how much? and what about Samsung?

Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) growth has been slowing down but exactly by how much? According to its latest earnings release, the business still sells 420,562 iPhones, 218,843 iPads, 44,404 Macs and 63,295 iPods – all in a single day, every day, which is phenomenal to say the least. But the extraordinary growth figures -- which used to pump its stock price and hence its market cap – are now history. In fact, the quarterly revenue growth is nearing a high single-digit number. The music is certainly slowing down, but for its rival Samsung (OTCMKTS: SSNLF) the party isn’t over yet.