Why Samsung Is The Next Apple
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
* it says that Samsung controls a lot of appliances in the home. That's nothing like what Apple does. Apple does not make and has never made washing machines.
* it says Samsung is "happy to use anyone’s OS as long as it puts phones into boxes and boxes into shopping bags". This is nothing like Apple, which is obsessed with control over the entire user experience, and which is extremely vertically integrated.
* nowhere in this article is any kind of revolutionary product mentioned. A smarter TV is certainly not revolutionary in the way that iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad were revolutionary. This appears to be yet another difference between Samsung and Apple.
So really, I'm not understanding this comparison.
That's about all I've got.
I don't know how well this works but if it works better than my current htpc + android + remote apps (which don't well together), I'd be super impressed.
Samsung already has a lot of integration nailed. Their products work well together. When I pop in a blu-ray, the tv turns on along with the sound bar. The remotes work well together (I can't speak to how well this works for other manufacturers like Sony).
If you throw a smart phone into the mix, that actually works as a remote for the TV and Blu-ray, I would be very impressed.
But their whole Smart TV system with apps and stuff really stinks. Very hard to understand the options, and the UI of the underlying apps is terrible. Just terrible.
I see Apple making a huge dent in the TV market by providing stronger integration, unique look/feel, and some bells & siris (just like they did to the MP3 market and then the phone market). That is, if they do end up making a stand alone TV at all.
Who knows? I do agree it will be fun to watch.
I would argue that that is their problem, no passion for the product may be OK for the TV market but it is not working so well for the phone market, an their performance in the tablet market has been horrible at best. The simple fact that they cannot be bothered to upgrade their devices after it leaves the sales center is driving a lot of customers into other vendors arms after a single Samsung purchase. Just ask any early adopted of their tables who have not seen a single upgrade. The mercenary mentality may be good for common appliances but it is not a lasting strategy in the mobile market.
Add in some tablets, some washing machines, and some acceptable software and you have a real and vibrant ecosystem.
Apple succeeded because their software was more than acceptable and now the bar has been set. There is a lot I like about Android as an OS but as far as Samsung and Android the lifetime of the device support lasts only until the sale is made and it is not a winning strategy for even acceptable software. They have to address this huge issue if they want to maintain customers after their first Samsung device purchase.
they’ll be happy to plop down a few hundred for a TV that can evolve every year with the addition of an upgrade package that ups the processing power and adds features.
They will have to adopt a different strategy than their phone strategy if that is the case. So far Samsung has shown a reluctance to upgrade the OS due to fear that it will cannibalize new hardware sales.
I know that some phones in the US don't see updates, but that's in part because US Carriers always want their own branded version of the major phones and put themselves between Samsung and the Customers regarding updates.
While there have been incremental updates to the major Android releases and my post may have not reflected them, the point I was getting at is that we are on Android 4, Honeycomb (Android 3) has been out for a while and the only effort to move that tablet over to it is via the home-brew market. Honeycomb is the first OS designed for tablets and yet the original 7 has not seen it. There are no technical limitations to the 7 that would preclude it from receiving the much needed Honeycomb update, but it has not seen it. Nor do I believe that it will see it. Further, there was just a big media blow up about the fact that the existing Samsung phone that is very similar to the Google sanctioned phone in specs, will not receive the Ice Cream Sandwich update. I am sorry but for me personally the 7 just now getting updated to 2.3.6 is a little to late. I bough one, and learned my lesson, If I had known that the end of life would have been in the 2.x branch of Android, I would have made a different purchasing decision. I expect my devices to become obsolete due to hardware limitations, with the device no longer being able to support the current OS and not by arbitrary limitations placed on it by a vendor. It's Samsung's prerogative if they want to handle their affairs in such a manner, but for me personal that is not the kind of vendor I want for my equipment. I like Android and have been contemplating a switch from my iPhone, but until I can find a vendor that will supply recent OS advancements, until my hardware is obsolete, I am forced to stick with Apple who has done a pretty good job of it. My 3GS still runs the most current OS sans Siri, which is due to hardware limitations.
It's basically all about touchwiz, in my own opinion Samsung would have no problem throwing a stock ICS on the Tab 7, but Samsung wants a smooth TouchWiz Launcher on it because the customers are accustomed to it and even demand it.
Compare this situation to MotoBlur or HTC Sense and you'll see that Samsung does the right thing in the end.
Buy a Galaxy Nexus if you want to make sure that you'll really get the updates asap.
Anyone who has used Samsung products knows they focus 99% on hardware and 1% on user experience. Their phones have long been painful to use. Their hardware is usually top notch.
They seem positioned to leap past this issue with voice/gesture commands. Minimizing the ways the user interacts with their products could result in a huge success for them.
Second, (and related) Apple provides UI consistancy, which is hard to do when you are 'mercenary' about OSs. And third, I simply don't see Samsung having the level of consumer trust that Apple has. People that follow these things may know a lot about Samsung, but most people I know don't care about the difference between Samsung, Vizio, or any of the other brands of TVs that line the walls of Best Buy. Sony once had a distinct advantage in consumer trust, but I don't know if they still do, having gone so long without standing out. Once upon a time, I wouldn't own a TV if it wasn't a Trinitron. Now? I just look at the specs and assume the manufacturer is fungible.