Apple vs. Samsung: Who's Winning Now?

[Mark Spoonauer]

The Apple Watch is just the latest volley fired in the battle between the two tech giants. Who is winning the innovation war?

Apple vs. Samsung: Who's Winning Now? : Read more

 

[bipbap]

Maybe I am being a Samsung fanbio, but it seems the author either uses an actual Apple product to show superiority to Samsung or the fact an Apple product is coming to prove superiority to a Samsung product. It seems it should be more of an Oranges-to-Oranges kind of comparison (pun deliberately avoided).

 

[coolitic]

All apple products are mediocre, locked down devices.

I'd like to say any device with similar price to apple devices is better than the apple device, whether it's samsung or not, I will never buy crappy apple products.

 

[Mark Spoonauer]

Thanks bipbap. This commentary is indeed based on impressions of some products that are not yet available for sale, including both Samsung and Apple. I've had a chance to go hands-on with all of them.

Of course, execution and how well these products fare with shoppers will be critical, and I anticipate revisiting this topic once full reviews have been conducted across the board.

 

[kawininjazx]

You can put a $25 SD card into your 16GB Samsung and have 48GB of storage, winner: Samsung

 

[nuvon]

All apple products are mediocre, locked down devices.

I'd like to say any device with similar price to apple devices is better than the apple device, whether it's samsung or not, I will never buy crappy apple products.

Who cares if you buy Apple product?
Who cares if you buy Samsung product?
No one, other than your stubborn biased mind!

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Iphones new features = Bigger screen

 

[bipbap]

Thanks bipbap. This commentary is indeed based on impressions of some products that are not yet available for sale, including both Samsung and Apple. I've had a chance to go hands-on with all of them.

Of course, execution and how well these products fare with shoppers will be critical, and I anticipate revisiting this topic once full reviews have been conducted across the board.

Hi Mark, I appreciate the response. I know I should have given it a second, more thorough read to make sure I was following correctly, but the one window here in Mom's basement is cloudy, so I was too gloomy to do so I still enjoyed the article.

 

[Innocent_Bystander]

It comes down to iOS vs. Android.

I'll skip both and stick to my Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia 920. I'm not seeing a compelling enough value proposition from each camp to make me switch platforms.

 

[bipbap]

Thanks bipbap. This commentary is indeed based on impressions of some products that are not yet available for sale, including both Samsung and Apple. I've had a chance to go hands-on with all of them.

Of course, execution and how well these products fare with shoppers will be critical, and I anticipate revisiting this topic once full reviews have been conducted across the board.

Thanks Mark for the response. I know I should have read it through a second time to make sure I was following correctly, but the sole window here in Mom's basement is quite dark from the clouds, so I was feeling to gloomy to do so I still enjoyed your article.

 

[alchemy69]

An article which serves no purpose other than to ignite a fanboi flame war.

 

[falchard]

Its obvious Samsung won, but it won't stop a generation who purchased overpriced and inferior Apples from claiming them better.
I also own a Windows 8.1 device, so I am on cloud 9.

 

[mitch074]

Hasn't NFC payment been available since the Nexus 4?

 

[drapacioli]

How can a serious comparison article give Apple the edge based on products that 1) haven't come to market and 2) already exist in Samsung's lineup? I don't think you can compare them without an equal footing.

NFC has been available in android phones for at least a few years now. Having said that, Apple has more leverage in such a market than just a handful of android phones. The iPhone is still the most popular phone so if a feature comes to it, other companies will pay more attention. This might give them an edge, but we can't say for certain since it's still unreleased. It might be a total disaster like Apple Maps was too, you never know.

 

[bonezy]

Wow, what a biased article. I mean that, author.

How do you figure the smartphone category to be a draw? To get single-handed mode: On the Note 3, all you have to do is slide your finger from the edge of the screen in, and back out again. Just a swipe. That's not a setting.

The hardware on all EXISTING Samsung phones trump the yet-to-be-released iPhone 6:

-Apple has introduced nothing new, and 1080p isn't "Retina HD" -- it's just HD. Not to mention already surpassed, by both pixel density, size, and pixel count. I'm not going to even talk about the paltry 750p.

-NFC? Been there, done that. Water resistance? How is this not super important. Pen input? Nope. IR Blaster? Nope. Expandable storage? Nope. Removable battery? Nope.

The list goes on and on, ffs. How is this a draw?


Oh, and this: "Although the Galaxy S5 and Note series sport a heart-rate monitor on the back, Apple's devices promise to keep better tabs on your activity via better designed apps, a more accurate M7 motion co-processor and a barometer that can track your stair climbs."
-- Are you serious? You're tooting unavailable apps, and 'promises', as better than the built-in the Samsung heart-rate monitor, and library full of amazing health apps [already available] on the Google Play Store. Wow.

 

[bonezy]

All apple products are mediocre, locked down devices.

I'd like to say any device with similar price to apple devices is better than the apple device, whether it's samsung or not, I will never buy crappy apple products.

Who cares if you buy Apple product?
Who cares if you buy Samsung product?
No one, other than your stubborn biased mind!

Yeah, let's not have a healthy discussion about anything. Ever.

 

[deftonian]

If we're talking about pure innovation, Samsung is the winner because they've developed working products that the masses have had a chance to use for years that Apple has only refined for their ecosystem and attempting to release. However, Apple does take the lead in quality control as far as their ecosystem and user friendliness goes. They're great at taking current tech and making it work better, I'll give them that.

That new Apple Watch looks ugly to me and I remember seeing Toms bash square/rectangle watches becuase they don't look like "Watches". It's crazy to see Toms change their POV the second Apple releases one. "Oh it's so prettttyyy"... that's what disturbs me about Toms.

 

[Mark Spoonauer]

Hi drapacioli. Great point about Apple Pay. It could flop. I remember Apple's failed social network, iTunes Ping. I also know that NFC has been around for a while. But no other company has gathered this much support for a mobile payment solution thus far. It looks like it has a better chance of success than Google Wallet, which the carriers basically torpedoed.

 

[bonezy]

Hi drapacioli. Great point about Apple Pay. It could flop. I remember Apple's failed social network, iTunes Ping. I also know that NFC has been around for a while. But no other company has gathered this much support for a mobile payment solution thus far. It looks like it has a better chance of success than Google Wallet, which the carriers basically torpedoed.

And yet, you called Apple Pay a "potential game-changer" in your article.

By the way, how does a carrier supporting or not supporting an NFC pay system have to do with its failure or success? Verizon can't block my phone's NFC, and neither can Sprint, etc. It's up to retailers and restaurants, and anyone else who I interface with to buy goods and services.

 

[IInuyasha74]

bonezy, you pretty much hit everything I was thinking about. The Samsung devices have a huge number of features that Apple doesn't. Apple really only gets by anymore by keeping its performance fast enough to not be a great deal slower than the competition, and the OS probably helps quite a bit since it can be focused and adapted for each device better than the hundreds of Android devices. So this helps same Apple from needing hardware that is as fast.

However, other than that its a pure lose against Samsung. Apple pretty much just gets by from its reputation, of more being an almost fashion statement to own it. If that ever dies off, Apple will be in big trouble.