Samsung Considers Its Counterattack as Rivals Erode Cellphone Profit - NYTimes.com

Final paragraphs from a stark Samsung snapshot

"Apple, too, makes most of its profit from selling hardware, but it does not share Samsung’s problems, Mr. Bajarin said. To stand out and keep customers loyal, Apple offers operating systems and Internet services that run only on Apple hardware.

A Samsung customer, by contrast, can always switch to an Android phone made by another company, log in to Google services and have basically the same phone. And if you can buy some other Android phone more cheaply than a Samsung device, why not?

“That’s really the difficult part for them,” Mr. Bajarin said. “Their customers are actually Google’s, they’re not necessarily theirs.”"

Samsung Considers Its Counterattack as Rivals Erode Cellphone Profit - NYTimes.com