An exchange traded fund pegged to South Korea is enjoying a multi-month rally as Samsung continues to gain ground in the smartphone business on Apple.
“Apple, for the first time in years, is hearing footsteps.The maker of iPhones, iPads and iPods has never faced a challenger able to make a truly popular and profitable smartphone or tablet — not Dell, not Hewlett-Packard, not Nokia, not BlackBerry — until Samsung Electronics,” The New York Times reports.
“The South Korean manufacturer’s Galaxy S III smartphone is the first device to run neck and neck with Apple’s iPhone in sales. Armed with other Galaxy phones and tablets, Samsung has emerged as a potent challenger to Apple, the top consumer electronics maker,” the newspaper said.
After the rare Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL) earnings miss and the rising demand for Samgsung products, tech observers may be looking for exchange traded funds with a more Samsung-centric weighting.
Apple recently revealed that quarterly revenue slightly missed Wall Street expectations due to lower iPhone sales, Reuters reports. [Apple Continues to Weigh on Tech Sector, Nasdaq-100 ETF]
On the other hand, in the weeks following the iPhone 5’s launch last year, Samsung’s Galaxy S III saw a record-breaking number of new sales, writes Michal Lev-Ram for Fortune.
According to ABI Research, Samsung smartphone sales topped 33% market share, compared to Apple’s 30%.