Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is counting on better sales from its upcoming iPhone following Samsung’s massive recall on the Galaxy Note 7 on account of exploding batteries, a serious issue when it comes to smartphones.
The Galaxy Note 7 which Samsung launched in August was highly praised as a flagship handset that rivals would find hard to compete with due to its impressive features. Thankfully for Apple, the batteries have a tendency to explode. There were numerous reports that there was a battery issue and in some cases, it was so extreme that entire handsets had exploded. Samsung had to issue a recall of the device.
Though the recall negatively affects Samsung sales as well as its image, the company seems to be experiencing bad luck because of the timing of the recall. The handset had started to attract a lot of new customers and the recall means the company might lose these customers to Apple, which is gearing up for the launch of a new product. Apple, therefore, has the upper hand now that Samsung’s device is out of the question. Samsung also reported that it might take several weeks to fix the problem.
“The timing could not be worse given how positive the reviews of the Note 7 have been, and this is the device Samsung was counting on for the holiday season,” claims Carolina Milanesi an analyst at Creative Strategies.
Apple’s sales have been slowing and the competition is not making it easier. Samsung, on the other hand, has been experiencing impressive sales numbers especially from the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Apple will be looking to capitalize on the fact that Samsung’s competitive product will not be in the market especially during the holiday season.
The faulty batteries are a major road block for Samsung which has waited to upgrade the Note for two years. “This squashes Samsung’s only critical window of opportunity before the new iPhone proliferates to tap the two-year old Note and iPhone base,” says Counterpoint Technology’s research Neil Shah. Analysts believe that Samsung’s misfortune might just be the break that Apple needed to get ahead of Samsung with the iPhone 7 which is due to be launched in a few days.
