Doesn't Own The i9500 S4 1:1 Smartphone Market Any More-Priceangels.com

This isn’t exactly an original observation, that Apple AAPL 0% doesn’t any longer own the i9500 S4 smartphone market in quite the way that it once did. But we’ve another little set of stories, leading up to the results, that show that the process is continuing.For example, none of the three major networks in Russia now offer the Apple iPhone as a standard choice.

But 10 months later, there’s not an iPhone to be had at any of the big three carriers’ stores. Last week the last hold-out — VimpleCom, which sells phones under the Beeline brand — cut its ties with Apple (AAPL) and began offering its customers Samsung’s Galaxy S4 instead.Between January and March, Apple sold some 120,000 iPhones in India, down from the 230,000 in the October-December quarter of last year, according to IDC. That translated into its share falling from 4.7% to 2.1%.

At the same time, iOS market share grew from 2% to 6.2% in Brazil, but actually declined from 8.6% to 4.7% in Mexico. Android vendors have recently gone on a price cutting binge in Latin America, slashing prices of smartphones to well below 300 reals in Brazil. The iPhone pricing in Brazil levitates around 2’000-3’000 reals. A subsidized model coming bundled with an expensive monthly plan can be had for 1’200 reals.

Apple might need to make some hard choices about emerging market product pricing very soon or face the prospect of Samsung building a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 volume advantage in the global smartphone race. Samsung’s massive 50 million unit quarterly smartphone unit volume is already giving it an advantage in component sourcing and economies of scale will benefit Samsung more each quarter it extends its global lead.

Fewer people are upgrading their smartphones—a trend that could make it harder for companies from AT&T T +0.22% Inc. to Apple Inc. to keep up the pace of revenue growth.sdM6Scfs

The rates at which American cellphone users have traded in their devices for more advanced models have declined over the last few years, according to analysts at UBS UBS +1.18% AG. They turned negative last year, when about 68 million people upgraded their phones in the U.S., down more than 9% from a year earlier.

The problem with this is that most of the current population who are likely to get a smartphone already have one. And if they’re not upgrading like they used to then all that’s really left is replacement devices for those that wear out (figure a 5 year cycle for this) and then just demographics. It’s not quite that bad but it’s certainly very different from the boom years when 5 or 10% of the population was buying a i9500 S4 1:1 smartphone for the first time each year.

To counter the “damage caused” by “Apple shunning Samsung” for the iPhone 6 processor, the Korean company is developing a processor with an integrated 3G/4G modem for low-cost phones to compete with Qualcomm QCOM +1.23% and MediaTek , the report said.The trade-in programs serve another purpose: They create a source of gently used smartphones that can be sold to customers on the lower end of the spectrum. Low-cost prepaid customers seem to be of increasing interest to the phone carriers.