New Samsung Galaxy S4 Ad Pokes Fun at iPhone

[dokujaryu]

Where shall I start?

- iTunes
- App Store
- iCloud
- iMessage
- AirPlay
- Better customer support
- More revenue for developers
- Way more polished SDK

etc....

For some people this is irrelevant, but for others it's what's keeping them on iOS (me, for example). I refuse to develop for a platform where I get less revenue for more work. Not to mention Objective-C being way more efficient than Java at most tasks.

If you are considering moving to Android, I have a couple of suggestions.

iTunes - Google Play store is alright. You can still use iTunes for music and autosync it to your Google account from your PC. I haven't really done a comparison between the two on tracks available or anything, but I am able to buy whatever I want from any service and upload to the Google cloud and play the music on any device through the cloud. You can do the same thing with iTunes Match, but obviously it costs money.

iMessage - I moved from iMessage to Facebook Messenger. Everyone has Facebook Messenger, and it messages everyone on their computer too. It also has a "show my location" feature that allows the person you are talking to to see where you are on a map, which kinda replaced "Find My Friends". Wife likes to see how close I am to the house when walking home.

iCloud doesn't have as many features as Google's Cloud. Really, I was using a combination of iCloud and Dropbox on my iPhone 5. Now I use a combination of Google Services and Dropbox. It's about the same really.

AirPlay - Well, first of all AirPlay has totally been hacked and anything can play to AirPlay with the right apps. However, Android also supports DLNA, which allows for streaming. Most good TVs for the last 3 years or so support DLNA.

I can't argue with the next two. Having an Android actually is kinda scary because there are so many Apple stores I could take my iPhone to if something goes wrong. I'm loathing mailing this somewhere if something goes wrong, or even going to an AT&T store. Blech. Also, in general Android users steal a lot of apps. I'm a dev so I don't steal, but it is shockingly easy to steal apps on this device.

As far as the SDK is concerned, um, I wouldn't talk about that if you don't know what you are talking about. If anything is more polished its the development environment. Android simulator is a freakin' joke that barely works at all. Apple has a HUGE advantage as far as that goes. XCode vs. Eclipse is no contest on integrated easiness. I'm going to try out IntelliJ with my Android to see how it goes, but I don't have high hopes for a usable simulator. Android's advantage is that the SDK runs on any OS and computer.

As far as the actual SDK is concerned, it's a tossup for me. Android uses a very familiar syntax and library setup to Java (but it isn't actually java), which is really easy to use. Objective-C uses a smalltalk like syntax that is actually pretty difficult to get started with for most developers. Maybe this is because I'm a Java/C/C++ developer. /shrug. As far as SDK features, android PROBABLY wins, as they allow apps to do more and access more of the device. iOS might win on 3rd party support. Stuff like Cocos 2d was always developed first for iOS, but I really don't know how much longer this will be the case. My guess is that as long as all the money is in iOS, they will get the new 3rd party stuff first just out of practicality and the Android version will be a port.

Ultimately, what you have said about SDKs sounds very black and white, but I think its an extremely gray area with no real winner.

Anyway, I hope this information helps.

 

[WeegieMac]

And if by magic, once those gimmicky features are introduced to the iPhone they will suddenly become 'innovative' and 'magical'! LOL.

Once iPhone NFC you can be pretty sure there will be a bump feature.

Hovering your finger over a section of the screen like a fud waiting a second for the device to sense your finger rather than pressing the damn screen will never be anything other than gimmicky, regardless of device.

 

[Glideslope]

Nice

Samdung is getting nervous. Keep going.

 

[mambo966]

"Do-it-all" useless "features"

This image explains it all:

 

[wordoflife]

I thought that ad was depressingly boring. They should try to show off the features in a fun and exciting way, like the old iPhone 3G/3GS commercials (or like the iPod touch ones)... not in a lame/corny script.

 

[LenMack]

Woof! Woof!

My Grandmother used to say, “if you throw a bone into a pack of dogs, the one that barked is the one that got hit”. Or as Queen Gertrude said to Prince Hamlet, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” This commercial has obviously offended a lot of Apple fans as shown in this forum by all of the remarks defending Apple products.
The good news for apple fans is that there are millions of fans who these types of commercials will barely elicit a yawn. Most people with I-phones love them and are satisfied with what they have. Of course there are features that Android phones have that cause a bit of phone envy, but overall, it’s not a really big deal. The same could be said for most Android users.
When companies go at it like this, we all win. If Apple had never revolutionized the smart phone and small music players, we’d all be back in the stone ages with walkmans and some fancy version of the old Motorola “banana” phone.
There is no “best phone for all people”. That’s the beauty of competition and choice. Be happy with yours.

 

[Killa Aaron]

Meh...others took the bait, think I'll just sit back and watch.....

 

[rdlink]

NFC does it without network. how do you not understand that. the IR inthe s4 controls the tvwithout network or needing a smart tv. also please name one killer thing ios has that android doesn't. don't just say ios

Sharing a picture with someone via iMessage or MMS, whether they be across the table or across the country doesn't require a "network" either, if you mean wifi. It just requires connectivity to some network, any network. My iPhone is never without network connectivity, and as I said before I am rarely in the same room with those whom I share pictures, etc.

I have no doubt that NFC will have a real killer use in the near future. I also have no doubt that when Apple deploys it they will make it work better and more seamlessly, and be cooler than has been done to date.

 

[bbeagle]

 

[iChrist]

What sets the iPhone apart from Android is the Apple ecosystem. Syncing music, movies, apps, updating software is all integrated and extremely simple, almost automatic.

?? Yeah, maybe amongst Apple's limited selection of apps. Even then it is spotty (iMessage).

I guess you haven't heard of the difficulty many have in implementing iCloud across other apps??
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/0...pples-developer-community-speaks-up-en-masse/

Or how automatic Photostream was, that you couldn't stop a single picture you took from your phone from showing up shared for everyone to see??

Or mobileme? Or Ping?

I see nothing simple or elegant about any of these solutions.

 

[CapnJackGig]

Another great ad. Samsung is definitely winning the hearts and minds now. Imagine that, delivering better products at cheaper prices results in more sales. Who knew.

 

[imola.zhp]

I like the windows phone ad better, search YouTube for "Windows Phone don't fight." It should be the first one, Nokia Lumina Phone...

Hilarious "I said Karate!"

As for this Samsung/Apple war, It's hilarious to me. I am a creature of habit, I started with Nokia phones and stayed with them until the first iPhone. Now I'll stick with iPhones until I have no other choice. It's a phone, it works...

 

[AaronEdwards]

This image explains it all:
Image

I'm sorry, Apple banned the knife from the App Store since it doesn't believe that you should be using such scary knifes. Instead it offers you a nail file.

 

[thecheda]

?

Its the whole bully attitude, if you can't be creative then pick on someone.

Most reviews have not been kind to the S4.

Not been kind to the S4? Are you kidding me? You mean most reviews on biased forums have not been kind right?

 

[Futurix]

All I can say about this is - I hate ageism in ads. People who like it, do you not realise that in 10-20 years (or even faster, seeing as current popular culture develops) you yourself will be on the receiving end of this?

And with this ad coming from a Korean company, it also feels faked for the West as AFAIK ageism is much less prominent in Asian societies.

----------

I'm sorry, Apple banned the knife from the App Store since it doesn't believe that you should be using such scary knifes. Instead it offers you a nail file.

As opposed to Android where you get unexpectedly stabbed by random criminals.

 

[Sylon]

Someone makes a thread about this commercial in the proper section of the forums 3 hours before a mod here decides to post it in the news section then gets his thread locked because the mods want "all discussions to be in 1 thread". It was in 1 thread, not the OP's fault the mods reposted it somewhere else.


Sometimes I don't understand this forum.

 

[samcraig]

Hovering your finger over a section of the screen like a fud waiting a second for the device to sense your finger rather than pressing the damn screen will never be anything other than gimmicky, regardless of device.

Yeah. I love that my iPhone works in the winter with my gloves on. Oh wait.

 

[Lamrihosga]

New gimmick in SG

I was seriously waiting for the kid to impress his father by opening the garage door with his phone. What a mess.

Hey, Samsung is going to steal your idea.

 

[SpectatorHere]

Apple has fallen asleep on the job. They used to dominate in terms of hardware tech, and software utility. With this latest generation of phones from HTC, Samsung and LG, the iPhone has finally been dethroned as the best smartphone. The competition offers superior hardware and OS equivalence.

Perhaps the 5s can re-take the crown, but there is no indication anything game changing is in the works. It appears that for the next year or so the iPhone will be simply a good phone, and not the industry leader.

A look at the evolution of the iPhone vs. the competition.

Original iPhone/3G/3GS:
Best display quality, largest screen, best cpu, best gpu, best OS, best app selection, best battery performance, best camera.

Competition(Blackberry, Treo, Google G1):
Poor display quality, smaller screens, slow cpu, slow gpu, poor OS's, native apps, poor battery life, inferior camera.

iPhone 4/4s:
Best display quality, average display size, best cpu, best gpu, mature OS, best app selection, good battery life, good camera.

Competition (GS2, Galaxy Nexus, HTC One):
Good display quality, larger displays, good cpu performance, ok gpu, improving OS, fewer quality apps, poor battery life, good cameras.

iPhone 5:
Good display quality, small display size, good cpu performance, best GPU, mature OS with poor multitasking, best apps, best battery life, good camera.

Competition* (GS4, HTC One, LG Optimus G Pro):
Highest display quality, larger display size, best cpu performance, good gpu performance, mature OS with multitasking, good app selection, good battery life, good cameras.

*In fairness, these are obviously 2013 phones.

 

[nsayer]

The only problem is, these flippin' phones cost 600+ dollars and carriers lock you down to a 2 year contract. No one can "just switch" without a huge hit in their wallets.

That's not entirely true and/or the full story.

When I got fed up with AT&T, we still had our phones under contract when I said sayonara. So we had to pay the ETF. The ETF was more than paid for by eBaying the phones - which we were completely free to do since the ETF was covered.

Now, that was a change in carrier. However, I believe that even if you're not doing that, you should find that eBaying the old phone - if it's a desirable phone - will likely net you the delta between the contract and the full price of the new phone. As a bonus, your new phone will retain the old phone's contract termination date - much earlier than it would be if the clock were restarted.

Is it going to cost something? Sure. Is it a "huge hit?" Having (sort of) done it once, I would say not so much.

----------

Perhaps the 5s can re-take the crown, but there is no indication anything game changing is in the works.

There's no indication that nothing game changing is in the works either. Neither you, nor I, nor anyone not reporting to Jonny Ives has any ****ing clue what's in the works. The only time we got a really good look at a pre-release phone was the time someone left one in a bar, and even then the schmucks who disassembled it missed a lot of the really juicy tidbits.

 

[Renzatic]

This image explains it all...

What that picture tells me is that iPhone users have a device they think looks cool, and does look cool (in a really overdone corny sorta way), but is completely useless in any real world situations.

Probably not the message you're trying to spread here.

 

[Akarin]

Where shall I start?

- iTunes
- App Store
- iCloud
- iMessage
- AirPlay
- Better customer support
- More revenue for developers
- Way more polished SDK

iTunes: slow, iTunes Match not really syncing properly (you have to wait forever before it does it properly).

App Store: so very slow to load on iOS. Browsing is counter-intuitive when wanting to compare apps or browse long lists of related apps.

iCloud: except for document syncing not that useful. CoreData syncing is a mess both to code, maintain and simply have it work. To put it in a 12 y.o. words: "Dropbox? Is that this app people use to copy documents from their PC's to iOS?"

iMessage: down at least once a month in my area of the world (Switzerland). Not reliable.

AirPlay: can't comment, not using it.

Better customer support: upon going to the Apple Store for an issue with my iPhone 5, the Genius advised me to call the online store in order to open a ticket and come back to the Apple Store with the ticket number. I did that, calling the online store right in front of him. True story, happened to me two weeks ago.

More revenue for developers: for most, yes, true. But right now, I make about 60% of my revenues from Android, 30% from iOS and 10% from WP8. Why? Because not everybody can have the exposure large studios get on the App Store while it is easier for an indie to shine on the Google Play.

Polished SDK: yes and no. There are many constraints on the way one needs to code and can use the SDK. Also, ObjC is a language that is way to different from Java/C# to be easily ported to the two other platforms I develop for.

My main phone is an iPhone and I'm quite the Apple fan... ...but stating facts doesn't hurt either instead of blindly repeating Apple's marketing catchphrases.

 

[marksman]

It's a feature that, were it on the iPhone, at least 3/4ths of the people here would be screaming about like they were an awkward teenage girl at a Beatles show in the 60's.

ohhhh maaahhh GGAAAAWWWDD! DID YOU SEE THAT? BUMP! THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING! APPLE DID IT AGAIN!

edit: though to be fair, this only would've been the case during the Steve Jobs era. These days, you're equally as likely to have someone pop up and go "this isn't revolutionary at all! The board needs to fire Tim Cook".

You got the hate down good for you big guy!

 

[Renzatic]

You got the hate down good for you big guy!

Yeah, but not hate for Apple like you're probably thinking. I just like making fun of some of their cheesier fans.

 

[iChrist]

All I can say about this is - I hate ageism in ads. People who like it, do you not realise that in 10-20 years (or even faster, seeing as current popular culture develops) you yourself will be on the receiving end of this?

Agree.

We first saw this in the "I'm a mac" ads, where that horrible young "actor" was juxtaposed to an older, balding, out of touch John Hodgman.

Look a lovable old person who just doesn't get it! How cute. I am young but it one of the things that turns me off to Apple's (and now Samsungs) advertising. It's not that I feel bad for old people, it's just that it's terribly un-clever.