Muggers in San Francisco, US Now Target Samsung Devices Over Apple, ‘It’s What the Market Wants’

In what seemed to be another feather on its cap, devices created by Samsung Electronics Co have entered the radar zone of muggers in San Francisco, U.S., with the device getting preferential treatment over Apple's iPhone.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, it seems Apple's market share has not only decelerated among legitimate consumers, but also among the city's muggers.

Joe Garrity, a captain from the department's Tenderloin Station, said they noticed that while iPhones continue to be the most sought-after stolen electronic device in the area, devices invented by the Korean Samsung are inching close behind the tally.

Half of the robberies that occur in the district are traced due to electronic devices. Of these, half are iPhones. But Samsung devices, especially with its more varied line of Galaxies, are now slowly getting to be the new vogue.

Thieves basically steal what's currently trending, Mr Garrity simply said. And because Samsung releases new devices more frequently than Apple, it therefore makes sense that the mugger's clientele would prefer the newest, hot device. Ultimately, muggers would stock more of them than the older ones.

And to prevent theft, it is just plain common sense to pay more attention to our surroundings, Mr Garrity said.

But experts think the stolen smartphones, either by Apple or Samsung, don't actually get sold locally but are marketed overseas where unsuspecting carriers, which do not take appropriate measures to block stolen phones from other networks, reactivate the stolen phones.

Smartphone makers typically deactivate the phone numbers of devices that have been stolen.