Apple, Samsung, and the Irrelevance of the American Smartphone Market
Brand loyalty and political hostility has taken away any intrigue left in the US phone market
A lot of people have started to compare smartphones to the home appliances industry. The comparison feels appropriate since a lot of the excitement around phones has waned and buying a new smartphone is oftentimes as unexciting as buying a new toaster. But I would amend that statement to say that the US smartphone industry is lacking excitement.
It has become abundantly clear that when it comes to smartphones in the States, it is a two-horse race between Apple and Samsung. In the last few years, we have seen the demise of former heavyweights in the American smartphone market like HTC, BlackBerry, and LG bow out of the industry to focus on areas where they saw profitability such as virtual reality and televisions. But this is not the case internationally as upstart Chinese phone companies have begun to gobble market share without even having a strategy to sell in the United States. The US smartphone market in many ways has now become irrelevant on a global scale thanks to the modern political climate and a culture that worships brand names.
