“Samsung was on a tremendous winning streak over the last year or so. It way outspent Apple on marketing, effectively hitting the company while it was down,” Ken Segall blogs for Observatory. “It had a monster hit with the Galaxy S III. It was hailed by many as ‘the new leader in innovation.'”
“And it was all set to be anointed the king of smartphones with an epic unveiling of the Galaxy S4 at Radio City Music Hall last week,” Segall writes. “But the next day, there wasn’t a lot of anointing going on.”
Segall writes, “First was the event itself. Even the Samsung fans were cringing when it was over. It felt like a third-world version of the Oscars, with not-so-funny comedy and a generous helping of sexism tossed in for effect… And then there is the Galaxy S4 itself… Better get crackin’ on something truly revolutionary.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Galaxy S3 was such a “monster hit” that it came in third place after Apple’s market-dominating iPhone 5 and the second-place older model iPhone 4S. It’s quite telling that this is what constitutes a “monster hit” for Apple also-rans. And the only people who would hail Samsung as the “the new leader in innovation” are the terminally stupid.
Related articles:
Samsung swung wildly and whiffed; Now it’s Apple’s turn at bat – March 19, 2013
Gazelle: Galaxy S4 spurs trade-ins of other Samsung phones, not iPhones – March 18, 2013
HTC president calls Samsung’s Galaxy S4 event embarrassing – March 16, 2013
Tim Cook will sleep easy tonight following Samsung’s Galaxy S4 launch – March 14, 2013
Well at least he got the part about Samsung’s latest launch as being A big Dud right.
A skeuomorphic presentation?
Last night I watched snippets of the Galaxy S4’s launch on YouTube. I couldn’t believe how bad it was — an utterly tasteless performance. And the S4’s “new” features are little more than a hotchpotch of disconnected gimmicks. I think Apple’s safe for a while yet.
hodge-podge
It’s “hotchpotch” where I live. Regardless of the spelling, the Galaxy S4’s new features are a mess.
How can you be a new “leader in innovation” when the best you can do is to copy what others invent and be semi-amusingly backward, like “gangnam style” music videos?
Not true at all: they have made amazing innovations… in brazenly copying, lawyering up, buying judges, perverting public opinion (yup, that’s the article’s kudos for “outspent Apple on marketing”). All truly disruptive!
Very true. Samsung’s biggest problem is that in some delusional way, they think they are innovators. They drank their Kool-Aid. What is very amazing, is how the talking heads and many analysts can’t see the bigger picture. It is like building the world’s greatest new sneaker and offered it to couch potatoes. Apple took what people use to run in and created the modern sneaker, they built the tracks to run on (server farms), they gave you a reason to run (supplied apps), they made it work with the rest of their product line (iPads, Macintosh computers, AppleTV, iPods, …), and are always working on the next big thing that will works with the rest of your Apple investments.
Samsung is just supplying a cheap sloppy copy of a part of what Apple is offering.
Flavr-ade, not Kool-aid.
Tremendous winning streak… way outspent opponents on marketing…hailed by many as “the new leader”… was all set to be anointed the king… but in the end there wasn’t a lot of anointing going on.
Obama.
Samsung = Obama.
Nobel Peace Prize. Still laughing over that one.
Yep. Obama’s all about useless gimmicks. It’s all for show.
Wow, get over it already…
S2T2: funny, as you just described Rmoney.
Still laughing over that one.
How is he describing Romney again?
winning streak: everyone, especially K.Rove KNEW he would win.
way outspent: Sheldon and his super PACs.
hailed by many: all of Fox Nooze (should I mention Rove again?).
Unless you’re the typical brain-dead, self-hating, America-hating Republifascist, you won’t need any more simplified explanations for the rest of his projections (look it up, moron). Move to Iran. They’re just like you there.
‘Booyah!’ Move to Iran. They’re just like you there.
Indeed! Incredible irony. 😆
By the Deity! Get over it! Obama won, your choice didn’t. It sucks that you’re such a bad loser, though if you could keep your bs politics out of Apple commentary it would be greatly appreciated.
Keep it up, Fwhatever, because every time you post you drive even more people to vote in opposition to whatever you are advocating. You are your own worst enemy, and that humors me greatly because I find you to be irritating and odiously repetitive.
Speaking about yawns… Oh look, another yawn inducing political propaganda attack from ye olde ‘First…Then’.
Thanks for your continual ruination of an otherwise fun, useful and sane Apple news site, dumbass and pals. Way to stay on subject! Do please get lost. 😛
I’m going to make a rare political comment here. The Democrats have hurt themselves big time with their sudden about face on gun control. Feinstein stands on the graves of little children, and cynically and crassly promotes her long standing anti-gun agenda. If she wanted to do something to alleviate gun violence in America she would be calling for an overhaul of our non-existent mental health system. 300 million Americans with access to “assault” weapons didn’t use them to kill anybody in 2012. The handful who did all had a couple things in common, severe mental health issues and people who were gravely concerned that they were a danger to themselves and the public. So do we address the availability of weapons to the 300 million? Or do we address mental health care for the handful?
Feinstein has a personal agenda: Fear. She’s afraid of Americans she can’t control. She has a concealed carry permit, but she doesn’t think Americans should have firearms.
The Democrats have kicked a sleeping giant in the balls. It’s not going to be pretty for them in 2014.
OFFS! Those of us who live outside the good-old-USA frequently don’t give a sh!t about your internal politics. I’m here to read about Apple stuff (and see Microsoft get sledged (a cricketing term)) and if I want politics, I can look on the front page of the local rag. Give it a rest!
Proved my point: as soon this guy posted look at all the hate being spewed. Now I agree that politics should not be thrown in but at the time of this writing, there at least four people going after F2014 t2016.
Samsuck!
Not cool MDN. I had an uncle who was terminally stupid.
Don’t let’s forget! The pundits had been pre-anointing Samsung the new king for months, generating a cloud of hype that no one could reasonably hope to live up to.
The pundits pulled that same stunt with Apple itself, and every Apple challenger.
Each pundit is a living, breathing jewel of creation, a cognitive wonder, a miracle of ratiocination, a smiling paragon of virtue, a sage and patient counsellor, a friend! One with no axe to grind, no paid obligations, no human bias, no history of prevarication, no blot of failure! :/
The world of commerce would be desolate without them.
Jobs said that about Msft but it applies even better for samsung.
Just goes to show you. Good taste can’t be copied.
Well. I’ll tell ya. Apple’s last event featured some gawd-awful rock singer band that drive me up the wall. I couldn’t believe how long it lasted. Why were they devoting so much time to that crap. I was expecting something else to happen. And it didn’t.
Lol ya just awful like Nora Jones, Coldplay and Randy Newman all Grammy winners . Just awful.
Plus these musicians come up at the end so anyone who does not like them can safely stop watching the presentation.
Anonymous coward ‘Paul’: We already know you’re a TROLL. It’s time to change your fake nick again so you can pretend to be sane again. 😛
That’s an excellent MDN Take…!
So their success is somehow defined by how much they spent on marketing? By that logic Apple could just give pay way more for the same marketing, make a fraction less profit on the same sales and become a massive success again. If I recall, when they were still pushing to overtake Microsoft they were spending far less overall and it was hailed as being incredibly efficient and a sign of the quality of their products. If ever there was an example of how nuts the technology analysis market is then this is it.
I miss Steve – http://bit.ly/Zf8YoW
Spot the Differences – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6GRFKWGn1k
Like I said, I wouldn’t worry too much about the S4. It hasn’t brought that much to the table for Samsung. And the release event was bizarre to say the very least. I just wish that the iPhone wasn’t due for a refresh but a complete overhaul. The iPhone 6 would look awfully good this summer. We’ll just have to see how much the 5S can move the needle. I believe the low cost iPhone will do just that. And I’m looking forward to something in the second half of the year, something new. iTV, iWatch or something we don’t have on the radar screen yet.
Wall Street doesn’t seem to want evolutionary, they want revolutionary new phones. Sad group of people.
Again, just how ‘low cost’ do you need? iPhone 4, free with a contract. iPhone 4s, $99 with a contract.
Free to $99 just doesn’t get any more ‘low cost’. Unless of course you are suggesting a swEinhorn-ian move of giving away iPhones with iPreferred shares to return value to whoever, and most importantly, to drain Apple’s cash reserves so they will be vulnerable.
Piss off Ken Segall:
It way outspent Apple on marketing, effectively hitting the company while it was down
What exactly was/is/will be ‘down’ about Apple? Do you possibly mean AAPL instead? No correlation. Sorry.
Otherwise, thanks for the yawns about Yawn Masters Samsung.
To all of Apple’s ‘competition’, why not spend the billions of bucks on innovative R&D instead of copying and marketing?
Producing well crafted products that people will use will produce the best advertising possible.
Idiots who view more/most ad dollars as ‘innovative’ and ‘leading’ should be ignored and avoided