Galaxy S3 sales surge after iPhone 5 announcement, Apple $1 billion court win
Since the launch of the iPhone 5, we compared the device with the best-selling Android device of the year, the Galaxy S3, from various points of view (including drop tests, video comparison, benchmarks and display performance) but we’re yet to compare the sales of the two smartphones.
Luckily, a new study from analytics company Localytics reveals that Galaxy S3 sales are still up and growing from week to week. The company has noticed particular Galaxy S3 sale spikes in late August and mid-September tied to Apple’s $1 billion court win against Samsung and Apple’s iPhone 5 launch, respectively.
According to the data collected by the company from July 31 to October 1 – the company provides analytics services to developers and “supports over 350 million iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows devices for its consumers” – Galaxy S3 sales have grown at a steady pace each week since August 1 (as the graphic above suggests).
The company measured weekly Galaxy S3 sales and compared them to the previous week, and concluded that Samsung sold on average 9% more Galaxy S3 units than the week before.
The first spike in weekly growth coincides with the same week that a jury awarded Apple $1 billion for Samsung infringing on Apple’s patents. The deluge of post-litigation press coverage both drove general attention to Samsung and suggested that Samsung devices were similar enough to iPhones to be an option for many consumers.
The second spike started the week of September 12, when Apple announced the new iPhone 5. Apple’s announcement was quickly followed by hundreds of stories comparing the two phones, most of which again suggested they were similarly capable. That combined with the slowdown in new Galaxy S3 growth seen leading up to Apple’s announcement (week-over-week new devices were the same as the previous week, resulting in 0% growth) suggest that many consumers were waiting to hear about the new iPhone before making a decision.
The company doesn’t offer any sales numbers for the Galaxy S3 and it doesn’t mention anything about iPhone 5 sales either at this time.
Apple has announced it sold over 5 million new iPhones in its opening weekend, with analysts expecting it to sell up to 10 million iPhone 5 in the quarter ending on September 30 and over 40 million iPhones in total in the Christmas quarter.
While the Galaxy S3 sales surges after the $1 billion verdict against Samsung and after the iPhone 5 announcement are obvious, it would be interested to know exactly how many devices were sold during those time intervals. We’re even more curious to see how the iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S3 sales looked like during the iPhone’s launch.
Another factor that should be taken into account by such studies, although Localitycs can’t provide such data, is the fact that carriers and electronics retailers offered a variety of promotions on the Galaxy S3 before, during and after the iPhone announcement. Price drops for high-end devices in the months following their initial launch are common practice in the Android universe where a hot new device is launched every few months or so, stealing the spotlight in the process. Therefore price drops can further drive sales months after some of the initial buzz around a device has toned down, especially coupled with such events like the Apple vs Samsung trial or the new iPhone’s arrival – naturally, we’re referring to discounts available for on-contract purchases.
When have you purchased your Galaxy S3 unit and how much did you pay for it?
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