Samsung's mobile woes rooted in hardware legacy

Here's what the article claims is the problem:

   Samsung's upper management
   just inherently doesn't understand software

Which can be said about a lot of companies.

When I think of how management at hardware companies selects engineers to work on software, I'm reminded of this AAMCO commercial. http://autoweek.com/article/classic-ads/horror-stories-malai... In the fifth commercial clip, there's a yokel putting water into a radiator. When he hears that there's a transmission to fix, he says:

   Let me try, boss!
   I always wanted to fix a transmission.

Software engineering is much different than hardware engineering. That doesn't mean that one person can't do both. But that person needs to have read some good CS books and taken some CS courses (IMO). Of course there will always be hardware guys who just skim thru the book Software Engineering for Dummies. And they're the ones who do a poor job.

It's the same mentality that we saw with the Toyota unintended acceleration software.[1] E.g., "spaghetti code" and more than 10,000 global variables.

Disclaimer: I majored in CS in college, but I've designed a lot more hardware in my life than I've written code. So I'm really the opposite, a software guy who tried his hand at hardware. :)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9643551

> Despite being pre-installed on Galaxy phones, Samsung's ChatON messaging service gained few adherents and closed without fanfare in March, while the Milk Video app, a high profile project run by newly hired U.S. executives, lasted a year, closing in November.

I'm not sure any of that would increase my likelihood of buying a Samsung phone, even if they were excellently implemented. Everyone wants to be the lord of their platform with the benefits that come from taxing their locked-in serfs, but I don't know if there's room for more.