No Cheap Smartphone Push To Grab Market Share – Apple’s Phil Schiller

The Chinese newspaper Shanghai Evening News’s Huang Yinlong reports that Apple’s Senior Vice President Of Global Marketing, Philip Schiller, in the first interview by a senior Apple executive with Chinese media since entering the Chinese market, “categorically denied” that Apple will be developing cheap smartphones in order to boost market share.

Huang says Schiller affirmed that the “IPhone 5’s aluminum housing, functions, and design make it the best phone for Apple, but notes that in the Apple vs Samsung smartphone war, Samsung’s market share has surpassed Apple’s, noting that market research firm StrategyAnalytics has forecast that in 2013 Samsung will account for 33% of the global smartphone shipments, with Apple’s shipments share 21%, further widening the gap.

However, he cites Schiller commenting that market share is not Apple’s biggest concern, and what the company has to maintain is smartphone design and engineering leadership, noting “Apple has been proud to create the best products. Market share is just a byproduct…. We are not like other companies, launching multiple products in one breath, then pinning hopes on a product to catch the imagination of consumers.”

Schiller also cited Apple’s massive lead in smartphone app availability, and Huang says that during the interview, he repeatedly stressed that user experience, is the key to Apple winning. Addressing rampant rumoors this week that Apple will release a lower-priced smartphone products to increase market share in emerging markets, Schiller tells Huang that while some manufacturers use cheap smartphones to attracrt consumers replacing feature phones, that’s not Apple’s product development direction, pointing out that while Apple’s current share is about 20 percent of the smartphone market, it’s taking in 75% of the profits, also affirming that China has become the company’s second largest market in the world, after the United States, with 15 percent of Apple’s 2012 revenues coming from Greater China.

For the full report (Chinese Language) visit here:
http://goo.gl/q5AF2