10 Reasons Why Samsung And Motorola Threaten Apple

5. Google isn’t such a threat yet

Many people point to Google as Apple’s biggest threat in the mobile market. They say that the company’s Android platform could significantly affect Apple’s positioning in the mobile space. But that’s debatable. In fact, Google might not be as big a threat to Apple as some believe. Google is a software provider, while Apple is a hardware company offering its own software on its products. That’s an important distinction. Over time, Google and Apple will likely have an all-out brawl in advertising as Google’s AdMob and Apple’s iAd continue to grow. But at least for now, Motorola and Samsung seem like bigger threats to Apple’s business model than Google.

6. Apple is more about hardware

The reason Motorola and Samsung are bigger threats than Google is to Apple right now is simple: Apple is a hardware company first. A quick glimpse at its financial results each quarter shows how much hardware drives its growth, not software. Considering that Motorola and Samsung are also hardware providers, it would only make sense for those two companies, at least in the short-term, to be Apple’s biggest threat.

7. Motorola has impressive leadership

Apple has Steve Jobs, which usually puts it well ahead of the competition. Jobs is arguably the most forward-thinking CEO in the technology industry right now. But Motorola Mobility has an impressive CEO of its own—Sanjay Jha. He might not be Steve Jobs, but he has led Motorola back toward the top of the mobile market with impressive products each year. Jha has proven that Steve Jobs isn’t the only CEO who understands the mobile market.

8. Name recognition is there

One of the key aspects of Apple’s success is its name-recognition. People all over the globe know the Apple brand and believe that it’s synonymous with a level of quality and craftsmanship that isn’t matched in the markets in which it competes. However, Motorola and especially Samsung have similarly respected brands that people around the world turn to daily. That helps keep them relevant against Apple and could prove to be a thorn in Apple’s side.

9. Android is a consideration

Although Google isn’t a huge threat to Apple at the moment, the company’s mobile platform is catching on among consumers and enterprise customers around the world. Motorola and Samsung have both decided to capitalise on Android’s growth and adopt that operating system in their own products. Going forward, that will likely pay off. According to Gartner, by 2014, Android will be close to becoming the world’s most-popular mobile operating system, finally coming close to besting Nokia’s Symbian platform.

10. Trust plays a role

While Samsung and Motorola enjoy name-recognition, that only helps them sell more products. But their success goes beyond that. Both Samsung and Motorola have earned the trust of customers who believe that the companies deliver a fine service and product for their own unique needs. There are some companies in the tech space that don’t have such a great reputation. Samsung and Motorola generally do have good reputations. And that alone should help them compete with Apple—the company that arguably has the best reputation in the world.