Tuesday 24 March 2015

Apple takes a hit at larger screens. Samsung answers with their own premium build.


Still on the subject of Apple and Samsung. It is evident that these two are starting to take the competition towards each other more and more seriously. But what else is new?

Apple had the philosophy all along that one screen size is all a smartphone user will ever need. They stood by this for all their designs. And in fact jokes were being made about the Samsung larger screens day in day out by Apple users.

I can't say I am 100% on-board with the idea of one-screen size, but I respected that approach as much as the approach other companies had that wanted to deliver with a range of screen sizes. Both are good practices and they give more options to the market which is always good. I personally opt for something in between. Not too large, not too small. At one point large screens start to become ridiculous, but the iPhone size was a little too small for my liking as well.

In pure marketing options however, Apple realised soon enough that there are many different tastes out there and preferences, and they abandoned their almost 10 year long campaign of 1 screen size to put their company back into the game and not appeal to Apple users alone.

Apple users of-course will buy anything Apple makes, and what they once made fun of (larger screens) now became their new praise, along with new features on the iPhone 6 that other smartphones had for years and Apple users would claim were simply features on smartphones that got in the way. Now, they praise them.

It's not the first time Apple took a pointer from Samsung, with the iPad mini being directed to a market respective to the Galaxy Note.


With their new features that are getting closer to other smartphones, their "premium" build as they call it, and now the option of a larger screen, it seemed that Apple was putting itself in a good spot within the competition (although I am still not fond of the iOS and never will be until its limited philosophy is abandoned, thus being the only factor that makes the iPhone faster). Apple seemed to up their game never the less. And it was time for Samsung to respond.

But who would expect it? Samsung didn't simply make a metallic case for the Galaxy S6, which would have been more than enough and for most Samsung users the best option as it would still allow for memory card and battery swapping. They went the extra mile and also created their own "premium" build.

More details on which I express here: Samsung Galaxy S6

All this tells me in the end both companies care more for numbers than they do those that follow them. Again, this is no surprise of course and once more what else is new?

However, Apple simply made a larger screen and they abandoned but one aspect of their philosophy whilst also providing an option for the smaller screen as of old. Samsung seems to have abandoned much more with an entire new build aimed specifically at that market. It's a choice from the side of Samsung that clearly also has it's advantages, and it does look like a much nicer design. I never liked the iPhone 6 design and found it started to lose its way.

It will be interesting to see where they go with all this with future products. I hope we are not heading towards a future with even less options are available to us and all smartphones end up being this "premium" build they are calling.

On the upside, there are plenty other options out there for consumers to chose from, and Android having now its own premium build is not a bad idea either. Whilst the second version to the Samsung Galaxy S6 is not simply a larger screen, but a pretty cool addition with their edge design which brings for even more versatility. I am expecting someday these phones to reach the point that they end up having two screens, one on each side, the way they are going (such a smartphone already exists).


Lastly, what is up with making smartphones thinner and thinner all the time? 11 to 10 mm is thin enough. Maybe even 9mm. Anything less of that starts to be a little ridiculous, especially on larger screen models where that thin design looks even more ridiculous.



No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments...