The idea that consumers have a choice between the best smartphones each fall, especially for the winter holidays, is an interesting one, since it’s true, but only to an extent. The competition is usually, for the average consumer, between getting an Android phone or an iPhone. Android’s main figurehead for manufacturers, simply by volume of devices and recognizability of brand name, is Samsung. And Samsung and Apple have the constant butting of heads over devices and ideas that went into them. But, when we see what Apple is arguing that Samsung stole from them, or look to compare the latest Galaxy S or Galaxy Note smartphone to the most recent iPhone, we see a disconnect.
The problem is that Apple is behind, and people know it. A lot of people. Even a person like Eric Schmidt, Google’s Executive Chairman. Yes, and sometimes the gap between Apple and Samsung comes up in specific, like during an interview perhaps? Like today, actually.
Okay, all bush beating-around aside, Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said in an interview with himself and Jonathan Rosenberg with Bloomberg that competition between the interest in Samsung Galaxy devices and Apple iPhones. Schmidt is quoted as saying that Samsung had the products that are making Apple into headline news a year ago. Plain and simple right?
Well, it really is. Look at iOS 8, for some of the features you have now been given (and I say given since you can’t really even begin to control iOS in any custom ways, as opposed to Android). And then, for us Android users, consider what you can do, with a handset running Gingerbread, version 2.3.5. We could do the same amount of things. Then, if you will, recall the popular image that highlights the similarities between an Android device and an iPhone 6. The Android device that matches the iPhone 6 in almost all aspects is the Nexus 4 from LG and Google. Is that sad? Is that good to see, in regards to catch-up? Maybe.
The Samsung affair is different, since the South Korean company makes some unique choices in both hardware, specifically in screen size and dimensions, and software, which is augmented from stock Android using Samsung’s Touchwiz overlay. Samsung’s fall flagship lineup last year was as follows: Galaxy S IV and the Galaxy Note III, as well as the Galaxy Gear. They covered a normal smartphone, the note-taker, and the forward-thinking technophile who wanted to answer calls without a phone in hand. The S IV had a 4.99-inch 1080p display and the Note III had a 5.7-inch 1080p display. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch pseudo-720p display and the 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch 1080p display. And they have a smartwatch, that lets you answer calls among other things. And it’s 2014.
Samsung has caught people’s attention, but not the minds of die-hard Apple customers that are throwing money at storefronts worldwide over the device lineup of Samsung Electronics in 2013. But will Apple decide to make the leap to try to match, or even possibly pass Samsung in innovation? We can only guess, and of course hate on the competition. Let’s refrain from the latter, but let us know if you think that Apple could match Android, and specifically its competitor from South Korea.