To some extent, Samsung is the victim of its own success. The Galaxy S III was a runaway hit, to such an extent that the Galaxy S4 was one of the most hotly-anticipated devices of the year. Now sure, it’s unfair — and unrealistic — to expect a technological revolution every 12 months, but Samsung seriously messed up with the S4 launch in my opinion.
via I Think Even Samsung Knows That the Galaxy S4 is a Let-Down | Gizmodo UK.
Nice way to start an articles that then goes on to say how disappointing the Galaxy S4 launch was.
I personally don’t see the appeal of the Galaxy devices. Other than the note, which has a fairly unique “phablet” form factor, they’re all much of a muchness. The S3 was competent, but filled with gimmicky features. The S4 is the same.
It’s also worth remembering that this is an eight-core device and it still struggles to run android smoothly at times, with certain actions stuttering when dealing with simple UI tasks like scrolling.
What’s missing from the S4 launch is a compelling reason for S3 owners to upgrade. Some of the software features are going to the S3, the screen is marginally better (although the pentile arrangement is flawed, in my opinion), it’s faster but you probably won’t notice it day-to-day. This is what Apple does extremely well. It creates a compelling story that leads customers to upgrade. They will mercilessly target a single feature that make your current phone feel out of date, and makes them lust for the new one. I don’t think Samsung have come close to that with the S4. But then again, I thought the same about the S3 and that sold rather well.
If I were buying an Android phone, I’d only be looking at the Nexus devices. TouchWiz, Sense, Blur … all the manufacturer’s software skins stink and drown the OS in rubbish.
What’s interesting is that Samsung makes a lot more money selling phones than Google does in total. How long is that relationship sustainable for Google? And how long will Samsung continue to rely on Google for such a key component in such a large part of their business. I can see breaking point approaching very quickly.