Gone are the days when the smartphone market was headed by both Samsung and Apple. Over the last two years Samsung have pulled away from their rivals and the Korean company lead the way by some distance. With predictions of even more success in 2013 Apple may have to address the issue by releasing a new phone targeting the lower end of the market alongside their forthcoming iPhone 5S device.
2013 may only just be underway my mobile phone industry experts have already made predictions about what the coming year will have in store for manufacturers and the news will delight Samsung. The company already enjoy a massive share of the total market and latest predictions suggest that a 35 per cent increase in sales is likely over the next 12 months. This would further increase the dominance of the company and the reason behind this predicted success is the introduction of new phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4< to an already impressive line up of models. For Apple this news will not make good reading and the company may be forced to target the middle to lower end of the market in a bid to re establish parity with Samsung. This could mean that we will not only see the iPhone 5S introduced but also a more budget iPhone Mini. Under Steve Jobs such a move would be unthinkable but times are harder now and under the stewardship of Tim Cook such a move is realistic.
Industry experts attribute much of Samsung's recent success to the fact that the company offer a diverse range of handset that appeal to a broad spectrum of the total market. On the other hand Apple only offer the single, premium model in their range which means the company are missing out on millions of sales at the lower end of the market. Many experts suggest that a new budget iPhone is essential in order to compete and some go as far to suggest that the survival of Apple depends on it. Apple will have acknowledged this and there is every likelihood that a new iPhone Mini is already under development ready for a launch at around the same time as the iPhone 5S.
Apple will be keen to address this issue over the coming months and this could mean that consumers are treated to a new iPhone Mini along with the next generation iPhone 5S.
