Despite the threat from Samsung, Apple still sold a record 47 million iPhones in the latest quarter, and the two largest U.S. carriers, AT&T Inc. T +0.80%and Verizon Wireless, said the majority of smartphones activated over the holidays were iPhones.
“Most people I know have iPhones,” said David Barnard, founder of App Cubby, which makes utility programs for Apple devices. The iPhone’s popularity is not what is at question, he added, but rather that Samsung has taken a smart tack by attacking Apple’s hip image. “Painting the iPhone as a passé thing is such a perfect marketing message to counteract its coolness.”
Samsung executives began taking aim in 2009 after Apple began selling the iPhone in South Korea, where it briefly became the top-seller of phones in the country.“All this time we’ve been paying all our attention to Nokia, NOK1V.HE -6.55%” a then-new chief of Samsung’s telecom business, J.K. Shin, wrote in a memo to top executives in February 2010, which was revealed publicly last year in a trial. “Yet when our [user experience] is compared with the unexpected competitor Apple’s iPhone, the difference is truly that of Heaven and Earth.”
A few months later, Samsung unveiled its answer to the iPhone, the Galaxy S, an Android-based model that had several distinctive features, such as an FM radio and front-facing camera. It also had an element that would eventually become an ace up its sleeve—a bigger screen.
Apple released its iPhone 4 in mid-2010 with a new design and a front-facing camera. It far outsold the Samsung product, but the Galaxy S had made a mark and was on the radar of Apple’s leaders.
In 2011, Samsung rolled out Galaxy S II and then flooded the market with smartphones. It put Galaxy S models at the high end and created four more lines—such as the Galaxy M—each with numerous models.
Samsung took another step last year by adding a new line called Note, which Samsung says is a cross between a smartphone and tablet due to its larger screen, measuring more than 5 inches diagonally. The first Note launched in October 2011 and an update came out a year later.
Samsung’s latest efforts seem to be paying off, at least with consumers who aren’t so loyal to Apple.
Dora Daniels, 26, of Oakland, Calif., said she learned about Samsung’s latest Galaxy S III because of giant ads plastered around a downtown San Francisco transit station.
“It’s silly because I don’t want to be a slave to marketing but it really got into my head,” said Ms. Daniels, who recently switched to the Samsung phone from an older iPhone.
—Amir Efrati contributed to this article.
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