The MacRumors Show: Samsung's 2025 Challenge to Apple

[klasma]

At this point it's not about Samsung vs Apple. If you are in the Google Ecosystem you use Samsung. If you are in the Apple Ecosystem you use the iPhone.

I use both an iPhone and a Samsung tablet. Now what? Both systems have their upsides and downsides. More interoperability would be great, which would require more openness from Apple in particular. But for third-party services it mostly already doesn’t matter which system you’re on, or if you’re using them on mixed devices.

 

[Darren.h]

I am upgrading. from the regular S24 to the S25 Ultra. I am excited for all the extra power. 30 percent gpu and cpu. and the awesome battery life.

blowing off getting an iPhone 17 pro this year.

already have lots of android apps.

 

[9081094]

This year Samsung has beaten Apple not only on software but on hardware as well:

 

[9081094]

Spot-on. Going back years I could do a Finder search through my thousands of photos for people, cars, dogs, buildings, red, etc , etc. and it would almost instantly find all of them.

This was before AI was in the public consciousness.

Cracks me up that many people really believe Apple is doomed. Again.

Apple is facing a macOS 8, macOS 9 dilemma again. Windows 95 almost killed the Mac because they weren’t able to make it multitasking. They had to buy the Next OS to get a modern OS.

This time they face the same situation with their braindead Siri. A good working assistant is a key element for their products.

How can HomeKit, maps, HomePod, command center, AVP, applewatch, iPhone, CarPlay, iPad, Mac and the whole range compete when it’s deaf?

After more than 14 years Apple is still not able to fix one of the most crucial parts of it’s software. Pure incompetence and an embarrassment.

 

[Mescagnus]

Samsung has all the AI Apple promises for this year and next year now. It’s working in all languages. The galaxy is also 40% faster in AI as Apple’s iPhone 16 pro. I really think it’s peak iPhone from now because Apple is stuck on a braindead Siri. Don’t see Siri improving soon and definitely not in different languages. I think Apple is about two years behind and the gap is widening.

Samsung's AI features are also available in the EU. iPhone is starting to look mid-tier over here.

 

[citysnaps]

Apple is facing a macOS 8, macOS 9 dilemma again. Windows 95 almost killed the Mac because they weren’t able to make it multitasking. They had to buy the Next OS to get a modern OS.

This time they face the same situation with their braindead Siri. A good working assistant is a key element for their products.

How can HomeKit, maps, HomePod, command center, AVP, applewatch, iPhone, CarPlay, iPad, Mac and the whole range compete when it’s deaf?

After more than 14 years Apple is still not able to fix one of the most crucial parts of it’s software. Pure incompetence and an embarrassment.

Yeah, whatever you say... Apple is doomed. Yet again. Like it has been for a couple of decades.

Mysteriously, Apple's 1+ billion repeat customers continue to purchase Apple products, year after year, after year, making Apple one of the most successful tech companies in the world.

As an aside, I have no issues with Siri. It just works.

 

[smulji]

Cracks me up that many people really believe Apple is doomed. Again.

No company is infallible. Ask Nokia and Blackberry

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Apple is facing a macOS 8, macOS 9 dilemma again. Windows 95 almost killed the Mac because they weren’t able to make it multitasking. They had to buy the Next OS to get a modern OS.

But Apple finally did get over that hump with OS X 10.0 Cheetah in March 2001 (not counting the public beta a year earlier, or Mac OS X Server in 1999).

Though Cheetah took them six years after Windows 95 was released, so your point is valid.

 

[smulji]

I beg to differ. Most people didn't care about a camera on their phone, nor did Kodak care about cell phones with cameras. Things change as people evolve how they use their devices. Google had the Nexus with NFC chip for payments back in 2010. People didn't care. Apple released Apple Pay in 2014, some people cared, most didn't. Now in 2025 people complain if a retailer doesn't take Apple Pay. Can't discount what features people want or don't want at any given time.

I agree. In about 5 years, using Ai features on smartphones will be as second nature to consumers as using their smartphone camera.

 

[citysnaps]

No company is infallible. Ask Nokia and Blackberry

As long as Apple has 1+ billion repeat customers in the world who love to purchase Apple products year after year after year, making Apple one of the most successful companies in the world, I'm not losing any sleep over that theoretical possibility.

However... I suspect there are people who believe planet Earth may stop rotating on its axis someday. Or that a Sun-sized asteroid may crash into Earth in the future. That's cool. You never know!

 

[cutlub]

Yeah, whatever you say... Apple is doomed. Yet again. Like it has been for a couple of decades.

Mysteriously, Apple's 1+ billion repeat customers continue to purchase Apple products, year after year, after year, making Apple one of the most successful tech companies in the world.

As an aside, I have no issues with Siri. It just works.

I’ve always used this argument as well, but I believe it’s actually catching up with them a bit more this year.

Apple Tests Key Technical Level in Worst Start Since 2008

Based on the numbers coming out of China, I doubt the upcoming earnings report will be rosy. What's most important is their guidance. It's going to be an interesting year.

 

[BradMacPro]

The MacRumors Show is back for 2025! On this week's episode, we look at how Samsung's latest announcements challenge Apple.

Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos​

Samsung this week announced the Galaxy S25, the Galaxy S25+, and the top-of-the-line Galaxy S25 Ultra. The new devices will directly compete with Apple's iPhone 16 and upcoming iPhone 17 lineup.

Similar to the iPhone 16, AI is a major focus for the S25 lineup, with Samsung touting a new "Personal Data Engine" with a Dynamic Island-like "Now Bar" with a "Now Brief" that guides users through their day, Circle to Search, generative photo editing, context-aware searches with suggested actions, improved natural language understanding, third-party integrations via Gemini, Portrait Studio, and more.

Samsung also previewed the all-new "Galaxy S25 Edge," a super-thin variant of the S25 set to launch in the first half of 2025. It appears to be positioned as a direct rival to Apple's upcoming "iPhone 17 Air," which is expected to be the thinnest iPhone ever at just 6mm and a radical departure from previous devices with a 6.6-inch display with ProMotion, a single speaker, a single rear camera, and Apple's custom 5G modem.

Finally, Samsung unveiled its upcoming "Project Moohan" AR/VR headset, which it has designed in collaboration with Google. It is intended to compete with Apple's Vision Pro and bears a striking similarity to it in terms of design.

The MacRumors Show also has its own YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed to keep up with new episodes and clips.

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If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up for our discussion about all of Apple's expected hardware announcements for 2025.

Subscribe to The MacRumors Show for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as Kevin Nether, Jon Prosser, Luke Miani, Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Sam Kohl, John Gruber, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

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Article Link: The MacRumors Show: Samsung's 2025 Challenge to Apple

It's still an Android phone so it won't sync properly with a Mac, so I don't give a damn what features it has.

 

[harmonthe3rd]

Don't Google Pixel phones count? Here in the UK we even have Kevin Bacon extolling their brilliance on TV.(sic)

To be honest, I don't know much about the Google Pixel or its feature history. I'll need to look into it.

 

[AndiG]

„Similar to the ‌iPhone 16‌, AI is a major focus for the S25 lineup“

The iP16 has AI? 😲😲😲 Ok maybe it has Apple Intelligence, at least this is what Apple tells you - and nobody knows what that should be. But AI? No way!

Creating custom emojis in Messages? Meh…. Neither anything useful nor interesting. It is more like comparing Siri against ChatGpt or Gemini.

 

[danakin]

Luckily, most people don't care and will never use any of the AI features anyway.

Luckily for who? The odd comments keep coming.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

While I, personally, hope to see Apple lose sales because of its refusal to invest more capital bring AI to iOS faster, I don’t know that the average iPhone buyer feels the same way and is steering away from Apple products because of the lackluster AI.

2025-2026 sales figures should show us if Apple has dropped the ball or not on AI.

-Sure, Apple might delay or fail to deliver on AI in the 2025-2026 timeframe. But if sales numbers aren’t going down then Apple can go as slow as it wants to.

 

[Frantisekj]

I think you probably already using it without knowing. I think every person will use it when it saves time.

There are lots of good examples of AI. Image playgrounds and genmoij aren’t useful.

When your phone has a good working assistant that really understands the words you’re saying and doing the things you want it to do… that’s helpful!

Samsung use of Google Gemini is a very good working example (have you seen the introduction video?)

If you really don’t want to use AI than why buy a smartphone? AI is everywhere without knowing its there. The pace of innovation in AI really goes fast. As a technology company you have to step in big or being crushed by the competition if you don’t.

I think it is highly individual. I do not have AI compaticle device but use image generatin bot in Telegram for posts that do not have suitable pic. It produce very tiny but for me usable pics. Quality vary very much from complete failure to usable ones.

And using AI do gather data a process them to meaningfull output. You have to be well informed to discover AI failures in data gathering but that will improve.
This particular use needs place where your results remains nit sure how it works with Siri and ChatGPT.

 

[pugxiwawa]

Only thing AI is useful is quickly pulling up proof read/writing tool, otherwise, Apple non-Intelligence is pretty dumb.

 

[Siliconguy]

Your AI can’t even help you spell correctly.

You have that one right. I had to turn it off on my laptop because it kept changing Arctic to Article. I also caught it changing words I had already written to something else as I was working on the next word. I was spending more time proof reading than I was saving with the autoprediction.

I'll try again next year, maybe.

 

[Siliconguy]

Windows 95 almost killed the Mac because they weren’t able to make it multitasking.

Windows 95 was also cooperative multitasking. Windows NT was the real thing, and then Windows 2000. So the basic point is correct. The great Copeland project failed miserably.

 

[Qubelek]

Looks like AI race. No new features anymore. AI don’t care

 

[richinaus]

You have that one right. I had to turn it off on my laptop because it kept changing Arctic to Article. I also caught it changing words I had already written to something else as I was working on the next word. I was spending more time proof reading than I was saving with the autoprediction.

I'll try again next year, maybe.

in Apple Freeform it used to keep changing whole sentences when I was in mid type.
turned the whole thing off.

 

[DBR2025]

And let's not forget that software has had 'AI' for years. It was just called 'features' before, but that didn't create market hysteria.

Remember in the 80s when everything had a turbo. Even my sisters hair dryer had a turbo in it.

 

[Sami13496]

I think comparing iPhone to Samsung flagship is like comparing apples to oranges. If you like taste of apples more, and you don’t really like oranges, you’re not going to start eating oranges just because oranges get more rounded or shiny or something. So none of Samsung / Android stuff gets me even considering switching from Apple. Not by a long shot. Samsung would have to come up with something extremely revolutionary. Or Apple would have to fail big time with their design or software.

 

[now i see it]

As much as everyone bashes appl intelligence — the general line of thought about the future of AI is that the winner will take all.
Literally — Apple’s future is at risk if they can’t compete in AI