People always love to use the line "Apple intentionally withholds features" but rarely does anyone think about why they do it....
Most Android OEM's throw the kitchen sink into their phone, while Apple is more targeted in their approach. I don't think its worth the negative connotation the above sentence brings.
I'd also argue against the thought that Samsung offering MORE than Apple in their flagships is automatically a good thing.
You may find it versatile, I just find it cumbersome.
I think the real reason is simply there is a lot of hate out there for Apple among the Android throng (and, lets face it - most on here are tech heads and identify more with Android's philosophy than iOS's) and there truly is a double standard.
I'm not saying you are one of them....though you do lean away from the iOS side rather than stick to the middle or lean towards iOS (as I do). Just saying, whether you feel the way you mention or not, the majority of people who mocked the 4S > 5 upgrade and would praise Samsung for a similar upgrade are those who are simply "bored" and want to move on to liking the next popular thing.....that or they really identified with Android all along and just hate iOS (generally failing to see or acknowledge that iOS, in its way, is a great mobile OS).
That's my rant.
And by the way.....I think the 4S > 5 was a really big upgrade....and given the rumors, I think the GS3 > GS4 will be a nice upgrade as well....I'm not one of those "re-invent the phone each year" type of people....generally I try and learn about what actually went into the phone versus simply going by what the outside looks like or how many GHz the CPU is....I'd say you are one of those people as well given how "nitpicky" you are with selecting your phone 😉.
Okay, so I really am not here to argue whether the 4S to 5 is a good or bad or substantial or not substantial upgrade. That's not the point of my post.
The point is, there is a reason why people react differently to Samsung's moderate upgrade (again, if true) versus Apple's moderate upgrade. And the reason is clear as day.
Does dislike of iOS play into? I won't deny that for some. But people who accept Samsung's modest upgrade have a perfectly legitimate reason to other than hating iOS. And they have Samsung's diverse profile of devices to thank for that.
Even if Apple has very good reasons for not including new hardware, that's their prerogative. It doesn't change the fact that Samsung has already included a lot of what's now standard hardware technology, and thus will be harder and harder for them to introduce "new" things.
----------
Just because screen sizes differ doesn't mean the overall design isn't the same. If you're gonna grasp at straws and talk about bezels size and texture differences then iPhone 3GS had iPhone embossed on its back in shiny metal compared to the 3G. The 4S' antenna has a different arrangement compared to the 4.
You didn't read anything in my quoted post. It has way more to do than just different screen sizes.
Here it is again:
There's a reason why people respond to Samsung's [if true] minor S3-to-S4 upgrade differently than they do to Apple's minor upgrades.
Samsung's smartphone lineup is so much more versatile than Apple's. Samsung has a wide range of phones to cover different sizes and price levels, many of them are current generation, and offer different experiences but still remain smartphones.
With Apple, there is only one screen size that is of current generation. The smaller option is over a year old, and there's no larger screen size at all.
Also, just taking their phones at face value, the S3 offers so much more packed into it than the iPhone 5 -- in other words, it truly is hard for Samsung to introduce many hardware changes (and again, they have other lineups to cover other ground in the smartphone world). Apple, on the other hand, intentionally withholds hardware changes (they don't believe wireless charging is worth it, nor in screen size options, nor NFC, nor notification lights, nor expandable memory, etc.).
Likewise, Samsung doesn't recycle their design for two years, as Apple has been doing, and will likely continue to do with the 5S.
So, is the S3-to-S4 upgrade small? Sure -- as small as the 4S-to-5 upgrade, if you want to really compare. But does Samsung take two years to do it? No.
TL;DR: No one is giving Samsung a free pass. Samsung just has their bases more covered.
*DISCLAIMER: I don't own a single Samsung product (no smartphone, phablet, tablet, TV, or fridge). Just pointing out that it is not even playing fields when it comes to people's response to Samsung vs people's response to Apple.