Samsung - clever marketing or over-sensitive Apple fans?

[jrswizzle]

I don't think it's only Samsung though. Apple fans are nervous because they're not used to being number 2 or number 3. I've followed Apple for years (look at my post count! ) and I'm no rabid fanboy, but I prefer WP8 to Android, and the iPhone is somewhere in between.

Ehh I think people put too much into the whole "rankings".

Too be quite honest, Apple hasn't really EVER been number 1 as far as smartphone marketshare even in the US until only recently.

Before Q4 2012, Samsung had been number 1 since 2008......

People need to both justify their purchases and feel superior to others. Hence technology (which is becoming extremely personal as we all use and interact with our devices on a daily and sometimes hourly basis) has become one of those arenas where there are sides taken and people feel passionately (and often times illogically) about a certain product.

The marketing of each company also perpetuates this.

Many folks are inherently competitive. Anything they can latch onto to drive that nature with be latched on to. I should know, I'm immensely competitive myself. Its only been recently that I've begun to broaden my technological horizons.

Now I only get miffed when people make utterly ridiculous and asinine comments like "the iPhone is a worthless stale toy" or "Android is so buggy I can't do anything on it".

I still have trouble tolerating idiots

 

[sentinelsx]

Ehh I think people put too much into the whole "rankings".

Too be quite honest, Apple hasn't really EVER been number 1 as far as smartphone marketshare even in the US until only recently.

Before Q4 2012, Samsung had been number 1 since 2008......

People need to both justify their purchases and feel superior to others. Hence technology (which is becoming extremely personal as we all use and interact with our devices on a daily and sometimes hourly basis) has become one of those arenas where there are sides taken and people feel passionately (and often times illogically) about a certain product.

The marketing of each company also perpetuates this.

Many folks are inherently competitive. Anything they can latch onto to drive that nature with be latched on to. I should know, I'm immensely competitive myself. Its only been recently that I've begun to broaden my technological horizons.

Now I only get miffed when people make utterly ridiculous and asinine comments like "the iPhone is a worthless stale toy" or "Android is so buggy I can't do anything on it".

I still have trouble tolerating idiots

My opinion after continuous switching between galaxys, nexus, iPhone and a couple Sony/htc devices alongside as well is this: apple got some things perfectly right whenever they implements them. Lockscreen notifications, the SMS app, push notifications, the email app, device backups, battery life, audio quality, app quality etc etc are pluses which are still there on the iPhone. What they really need to work more on is small UI things like gradients and over the top skeumorphim along with major OS changes like sharing, app defaults and intents, a little more flexibility etc.

It is those reasons that always push me to android devices along with the fact that I like a 4.3-4.7 inch screen more than one handed use which is not coming to iPhone in 2 years at least. But what I find is that some of the annoyances still make me appreciate the iPhone. It is by no means "sucky".

I had high hopes that Samsung will add some good stuff instead of marketing gimmicks this time because I appreciated some of the additions in gs3. Their stock apps were ugly but they were much more functional, the browser was smooth, the audio quality was solid, gallery looked better than what it looks in stock android IMO, SMS app needed theming to get rid of that black, blue and yellow stuff but was better than the big button like messages in stock SMS, and so on.

Too bad they didn't bother copying apple further and instead ran towards adding air stuff.

May be they will learn and work to make touchwiz aesthetic AND not bloated in their next handset, or not repeat it with tizen.

 

[daveathall]

TBH, it doesn't bother me in the least which company is "number one" I have no interest in them other than buying their products. I am glad that analysts and the companies themselves do have a healthy rivalry and competitiveness to strive to be the best. It is due to this that we have some stunning flagship devices from HTC, Sony, Apple, Samsung and Nokia. I know which devices that I enjoy/prefer at the moment, in a while this will change, if my phone is the best seller, it doesn't automatically mean that it is the best.

 

[jrswizzle]

My opinion after continuous switching between galaxys, nexus, iPhone and a couple Sony/htc devices alongside as well is this: apple got some things perfectly right whenever they implements them. Lockscreen notifications, the SMS app, push notifications, the email app, device backups, battery life, audio quality, app quality etc etc are pluses which are still there on the iPhone. What they really need to work more on is small UI things like gradients and over the top skeumorphim along with major OS changes like sharing, app defaults and intents, a little more flexibility etc.

It is those reasons that always push me to android devices along with the fact that I like a 4.3-4.7 inch screen more than one handed use which is not coming to iPhone in 2 years at least. But what I find is that some of the annoyances still make me appreciate the iPhone. It is by no means "sucky".

I had high hopes that Samsung will add some good stuff instead of marketing gimmicks this time because I appreciated some of the additions in gs3. Their stock apps were ugly but they were much more functional, the browser was smooth, the audio quality was solid, gallery looked better than what it looks in stock android IMO, SMS app needed theming to get rid of that black, blue and yellow stuff but was better than the big button like messages in stock SMS, and so on.

Too bad they didn't bother copying apple further and instead ran towards adding air stuff.

May be they will learn and work to make touchwiz aesthetic AND not bloated in their next handset, or not repeat it with tizen.

Agreed - after being a 2-platform user for the last few months I've grown to appreciate the nuances of each platform (iOS, Sense Android, Vanilla Android). I've come to the conclusion that all this posturing over which is better and one being awful really is just that - posturing.

I get that one offers more to some. We all choose out devices on which suits our needs. But the reality is, both Android and iOS are in a mature state and really offer the same overall experiences. They just go about it in different ways.

I really haven't changed my overall use case now that I use Android. I've simply adapted my uses to the way Android does things. With the Nexus, I did a lot more tinkering than I ever have because I could, but ultimately, it didn't change the way I see smartphones or use them.

At this point, I'd likely be happy with whatever flagship fell in my lap - as long as it was Android of iOS. Still waiting on WP8's app store to catch up.

 

[sentinelsx]

Agreed - after being a 2-platform user for the last few months I've grown to appreciate the nuances of each platform (iOS, Sense Android, Vanilla Android). I've come to the conclusion that all this posturing over which is better and one being awful really is just that - posturing.

I get that one offers more to some. We all choose out devices on which suits our needs. But the reality is, both Android and iOS are in a mature state and really offer the same overall experiences. They just go about it in different ways.

I really haven't changed my overall use case now that I use Android. I've simply adapted my uses to the way Android does things. With the Nexus, I did a lot more tinkering than I ever have because I could, but ultimately, it didn't change the way I see smartphones or use them.

At this point, I'd likely be happy with whatever flagship fell in my lap - as long as it was Android of iOS. Still waiting on WP8's app store to catch up.

Hmm, but i think android as an open source OS hasn't reached the maturity reached by a closed source OS like iOS. I read a fantastic article from someone about their annoyances with stock android, and was surprised to see a lot of those shared with mine. Matias Duarte himself has said many times that android is getting further refined, and that he doesn't think it is there yet.

When we move to skinned android, well, you see how bad the OEMs really can be. What we get is glitzy futuristic marketing features instead of real functionality that is not as fun to market to the facebook/text only smartphone crowd. Sadly the iPhone 5 still remains a viable choice for me not because i want to, but because the rivals keep failing to provide me with an alternative. Only HTC seems to have done better this time though, with their fast, minimalistic sense 5 phone.

I like your praises about the one and i myself loved the screen and sense 5 during my brief play with it but i am concerned about the 4 MP camera, having email blues and perhaps the battery life.

This is the 4th year in a row that i am still indecisive between keeping the iPhone 5 and purchasing an android on the side or as primary device. Already done that so many times that i am starting to accept that may be iOS 7 will be good enough to keep me content, or may be BB10 will finally start selling or may be samsung will finish their tizen project and we can see what they can really do on their own.