A Samsung spokesman in Seoul declined to make executives available. An Apple spokeswoman declined to make executives available for interviews, but reiterated recent comments by Chief Executive Tim Cook. Mr. Cook has said Apple is “unwilling to cut corners in delivering the best customer experience in the world.”
While many analysts agree that Samsung isn’t as innovative as Apple in terms of design and software capability, it has been able to match other electronics companies’ products at a cheaper price.
Samsung’s high-end smartphones are priced similarly to their iPhone counterparts in the U.S. But Samsung’s devices have been significantly discounted at times, to less than a quarter of the sticker price in some cases.
Samsung owns its own manufacturing facilities where it builds screens, chips and other parts, allowing it to cut costs to make smartphones in a way that few other manufacturers can. Apple designs its own devices and some of the technologies it uses, but it relies on other companies, including Samsung, to help build its iPhones.
At the same time, the Korean electronics maker has capitalized on what Apple wasn’t doing in the smartphone market. Even as Apple stuck to one new model each year with a narrow price band, Samsung released multiple smartphones in various shapes and sizes and with features such as larger screens.
Samsung was also quick to embrace Google Inc.’s GOOG -0.02%Android mobile software just as the operating system was becoming popular with consumers. That enabled the company to become the leading vendor of Android phones in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Samsung also offers feature phones based on Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT +0.90%Windows Phone software to attract consumers in low-end and emerging markets.
The result is a two-horse race in which Apple appears to be seeing iPhone sales growth slow at a time when smartphones are set to become the majority of all cellphone sales.
Samsung’s surge in smartphones has caused more than just consumers to switch away from Apple. Some app developers have said they are now focusing more attention on Samsung devices.
Ken Yarmosh, chief executive of Savvy Apps in Washington, D.C., said his company began by making apps for Apple’s iOS operating system but lately has been focusing on Android as Samsung devices have become more prevalent, especially among his own company’s testing devices.
“There was a major flip—it was Apple, then if you have money build for Android,” Mr. Yarmosh said. “Now it’s Android first, or Android only.”
The intense competition has led to skirmishes between Apple and Samsung. In August, a federal court sided with Apple in a fight over patents, awarding it more than $1 billion in damages and saying Samsung had infringed many of Apple’s patents. The two companies are also dueling in numerous courts world-wide over various other patents, including the design of their respective devices and the wireless technology that powers them.
Apple also appears to be responding to Samsung’s growth by aiming to diversify its iPhone line. The Wall Street Journal earlier this month reported that Apple is working on a lower-cost iPhone that could potentially launch later this year.