Apple vs Samsung

 According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, Samsung has simply outshined Apple with its smartphones sale during the last quarter which is more than 20 million whereas Apple has been able to sale 17.1 million phones so far. For describing the Apple’s smartphone figures, the journal used the term “sold” in specific. In this regard, shipments cannot be considered as sales and thereby lie the nub. The journal has specifically emphasized on the term “shipped” while referring to Samsung’s 20 million smartphones. By next week, new quarterly figures will be revealed by Samsung, but the company has stopped sharing its shipment figures for its smartphones. On the other hand its rival mobile company Nokia has recently posted its figure of shipment for the quarter and its 16.8 million units.

The journal said that these figures indicate that Samsung with its sale has been able to beat both Nokia and Apple in the smartphone market. But this has been speculated on the assumption that there is difference in the shipments and sales. In case if it’s about shipments then a comparison between Samsung and Nokia seems valid whereas the comparison between Samsung and Apple doesn’t seem right if we are talking about sales for one and shipments for another.

Actually this very question has become a talk of the town since everyone on CNET and some other sites is asking: What’s the difference between shipments and sales? Well many reports and stories are using the two words but the reality is they actually are not. Looking at the meaning of both the words, one can easily understand the difference. Shipment refers to the number of items sent by a vendor or a manufacturer to the retail outlets. On the other hand, sales refer to the actual number of items purchased by the customers. Interestingly it seems that for hot products like smartphones, the words have been given the same meaning but the fact is in many cases it may happen, that every item shipped to the retail store would be sold for sure.

Many companies out there are also into this fudge thing by using sleight of hand called “channel stuffing.” And this trick allows the manufacturers to send far more products to the retail outlets than they actually be able to sell. Even Samsung was caught earlier this year doing the same sort of number fudging with its Galaxy tab tablet. With this stuff going, one can hardly make out that that did actually top the smartphone market.