Most people would have immediately thought that the Galaxy Note 7 recall is going to benefit Apple as the iPhone 7 is being released in the midst of this entire debacle. Customers who might be considering to spend a bunch of money on Samsung's latest flagship might now look towards Apple's new flagship deterred by the possibility of the Galaxy Note 7's battery exploding, even though Samsung has promised to replace each and every unit of the handset with one that's not a potential fire hazard. However, market experts believe it's not going to play out like this.
The iPhone 7 isn't exactly a revolutionary update to the iPhone and Apple has done something that has divided opinion – it has removed the 3.5mm headphone jack – and that's a move many expect will irk prospective customers who don't want to spend money on wireless headphones and would like to have the freedom of charging their phone and listening to music via headphones at the same time. Market experts believe that for this reason customers who were initially going to buy the Galaxy Note 7 may not spend their money on the iPhone 7. Who knows, perhaps they might hold on to their money until Samsung comes out with the Galaxy S8.
They believe that as a result of this, the global smartphone market is going to see a contraction in the second part of this year as no viable alternative to the Galaxy Note 7 is available. It's plausible when you look at the fact that Apple has seen iPhone sales decline in the last two quarters which signals that people are just not upgrading their high-end phones as frequently as they used to. A contraction in the premium smartphone market has been forecasted since the beginning of this year and it's only likely to get worse due to the Galaxy Note 7 recall.
