Can Samsung Beat Apple in the Smartphone Market?

Even though Samsung has created a buzz with its latest product, the Galaxy S4, experts still believe that its position as the market leader is much more complicated.

Samsung sold more smartphones than any other company, including Apple, last year and displayed confidence by buying a 2-minute SuperBowl commercial.

Chris Dixon, a venture capitalist of Andreeson Horowitz, explains the similarities between the smartphone and the PC market in the 90s, in saying, “They’ve done a phenomenal job sort of emerging from a pretty large set of handset makers to be the clear leader. The closest sort of analog to where Samsung is would be Dell.”

Golvin, another analyst concurs, and explains why Apple’s position is secure because every time an Android phone is released, the buzz created about is about the hardware features whereas both Google and Apple do things differently by offering new experiences through the software that comes with the phone.

He goes on to say that both Android and Apple dominate the market because of their ability to replicate these experiences in a cycle which makes them more dominant and appealing, unlike Samsung which makes hardware.

So, the key to Samsung retaining its position as a market leader lies in being able to make software of its own and is probably why they are making their presence felt in Silicon Valley by building a new campus.

When it released its latest smartphone, the focus was on translating languages and being able to edit photos in new ways. In other words, Samsung’s phone was all about its software.