This is a discussion thread for the "Samsung Still Lags Far Behind Apple" story posted on the front page.
Yep, it is indeed surprising that Samsung is still behind AAPL, considering the inroads they have made in the smartphone market... Still, being a Malaysian, it's a good sign to see an Asian giant competing head-to-head with the world's most valuable company today!
I'm always confused by these kind of articles. Why is it a good thing that Apple has the highest profit margin? That just means that their customers have gotten a worse deal.
Err.. How so? Prices too high - no sales. Prices to low - no profit. Prices reasonable - sales+profit. Seems like Apple's got it right.
If Apple products didn't have their higher price, they'd loose the psychological aspect, of well if it's $200 more than that phone, it must be *special* somehow... Also you get pretty damn good customer support.
So you'd rather pay more for no reason? Got it! The fact that other devices cost the same while having a much lower profit margin must either mean that those manufactorers have a very high manufacturing overhead (doubtful) or you get more for your money.
You quoted my post a little too fast. Anyway, the quality argument doesn't really work in this case since that would by definition make them more expensive for Apple to manufacture and as such would decrease their profit margin. Sure, some of it can be explained by larger orders of components but not all of it. Customer support is a valid argument and the only good reason for paying more I can think of.
