The increasing complexity of smartphone hardware may be generating investing opportunities. But investors need to have a clear idea of what exactly counts as hardware and who is doing it well, so in a two-part series, I will look at these to aspects, and in Part II look at the companies that may be places for investors to put their money.
Apple has demonstrated over each successive generation of its iPhone that hardware alone does not make a great smartphone. The software and ecosystem are equally critical. Moreover, it is the elegant integration of the three that has made Apple the largest company by market capitalization in the world.
Samsung, meanwhile, has come a long way, but it still does not quite match Apple’s tight integration of hardware, software, and ecosystem. This hasn’t changed with the introduction of the brand new flagship phone Galaxy S5 by Samsung.
In many ways, hardware specs of Galaxy S5 predecessor Galaxy S4 where superior to Apple’s flagship phone iPhone 5s, but the new Galaxy S5 hardware specifications leave iPhone 5s in the dust.
The most visible piece of hardware on a smartphone is the screen. The iPhone 5s has a 4-inch display compared to 5.1-inch display on the Galaxy S5. There is much debate about what screen size is better. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference. Those who use their phone mainly for talking prefer a small screen. On the other hand, those who use their phone for texting, browsing, emailing, and other computational tasks prefer a larger screen…Read more at MarketWatch
