Did you listen to the Samsung earnings CC or its replay? It can be a difficult listen and I had to repeat what was stated in several sections of it, and I still had difficulty interpreting what was stated in at least one case. In re the CC Peter Svensson of AP reported ...
Thanks for the fact checking Eric. No, I did not listen to the CC (nor apparently, did Mr Svensson). I have not listened to a Samsung CC since Lee Younghee fielded queries for the Mobile Telecom group. Incidentally, I found her pretty articulate at the time, despite her famous "quite smooth" gaffe.
I stand corrected that the preponderance of the evidence does suggest that Samsung increased smartphone shipments QoQ, despite iSuppli's estimate.
The majority of cellphone manufacturers that do disclose sell-in do not, however, breakout smartphone from other handsets sold-in. Nokia and Apple are major exceptions in this regard. RIM is getting vaguer about unit volumes and HTC no longer reports them.
Refreshingly, Motorola does explicitly break out total handset and smartphone sell-in as well, since it is a direct metric of their stated business transition (as it is for Nokia).
Whether Samsung passed Apple in smartphones again in Q4 or didn't, they had a stellar quarter and their mobile device operating margins were the highest they have recorded since H1 2004. IM had an op margin of 18.4%.
Agreed, that operating margin is Nokia-esque, circa 2007.
Best, Pyslent |
