“The Mobile Word Congress (MWC) wraps up in Barcelona today and the conventional wisdom is the confab was great for Google and not so good for Apple,” Aaron Task reports for Yahoo Finance. “But the conventional wisdom is often wrong and Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Pressman thinks 2014 is shaping up to be a good year for Apple, citing ‘very low expectations and a big opportunity to innovate.'”
“Pressman even found some positives for Apple amid all the ‘mindshare’ Android captured at MWC,” Task reports. “‘Samsung’s new galaxy S5 is just a complete and total ripoff of what Apple did six months ago with the iPhone 5S,’ he says, citing the fingerprint reader and gold color as prime examples. ‘And the fingerprint reader is reportedly much less easy to use than Apple’s. There’s a possibility all this copying and aping of Apple bounces back not well for Samsung and the overall Android ecosystem.'”
Task reports, “The real opportunity for Apple, he says, will come around the expected launch of iPhone 6 later this year. ‘There’s real danger these Android phones that are very derivative and not exciting get left in the dust in a couple of months if there’s an iPhone which really has some Apple innovation in it.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A plastic, 32-bit “flagship” that cannot even compete with the iPhone 4S, introduced by Apple in October 2011, much less an iPhone 5s? Seriously, Samsung? You should go back to trying to directly ape everything about Apple’s iPhone: You’d have much better products and, God knows, the “justice system” will never catch up with you.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “neutrino23” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
With plastic, 32-bit Galaxy S5, Samsung not shooting for the high end, but what will Apple do? – February 26, 2014
Samsung lies again: 16GB plastic 32-bit Galaxy S5 only has 7.86GB usable on-board storage – February 25, 2014
Samsung unveils plastic, 32-bit Galaxy S5 phone, world yawns – February 24, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
Demand remains strong for Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 5s three months after launch – December 19, 2013
Canaccord: Apple’s iPhone 5s ‘by far the top selling smartphone’ in the U.S. for 3rd straight month – December 12, 2013
Forbes reviews Apple iPhone 5s: ‘The best all-round smartphone on the market’ – November 18, 2013
Apple iPhone 5s reviews are universally positive, many crown iPhone 5s the best smartphone – September 19, 2013
Engadget reviews Apple iPhone 5c: A breath of fresh air that will be wildly popular this holiday season – September 18, 2013
Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 5s is by far the fastest smartphone in the world – September 18, 2013
Ben Bajarin: Apple’s new iOS 7 will cause consumers to discover their iPhones all over again – September 18, 2013
John Gruber reviews Apple iPhone 5s: ‘This is what innovation, real innovation, looks like’ – September 18, 2013
AnandTech reviews iPhone 5s: Apple’s 64-bit A7 is seriously impressive – September 18, 2013
TechCrunch reviews Apple iPhone 5s: The best smartphone available – September 18, 2013
Apple’s new iPhone 5S likely to be in exceptionally short supply – September 18, 2013
USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple iPhone 5s: ‘Makes the best smartphone even better’ – September 18, 2013
Mossberg reviews Apple iPhone 5s: ‘The best smartphone on the market’ – September 18, 2013
The Samsung Galaxy 5, the premier Android flagship by the premier Android phone company is a yawner of a device. It seems with little to no more competition for Samsung on the Android side,they are just going through the motions.
This type of complacency is the death knell of any business, I highly doubt the word “complacency” will be thrown around at the iPhone 6. I have a big feeling the iPhone 6 is going to beat all sales expectations for Apple.
Call me crazy, but what if the entire phone is covered in sapphire?
OK. You’re crazy!
Agree; not feasible since you would have to have incredible adhesion of sapphire to aluminium, for this to work out.
This can not be done for various reasons, including different reaction of those materials to temperature.
The only way Al2O3 can stick to aluminium is when it is grown right on the metal itself, as in anodized aluminium in iPhones 5/5s. Clusters of crystal are formed, not cover of uniformity, so it is less scratch resistant that solid sapphire.
Something-something you need aluminum for the antenna?
Sapphire could cover the antenna was what I was thinking, but I guess that wouldn’t work because (at least as far as we know, it can’t be fused to metal easily, based on the post above.
Did Samsung just cede the high ground?
This coud be bad news for Microsoft/Nokia and the other bottom feeders. We’ll see.
After using an iPhone since launch date in 2007, I’m leaving this comment with my Note 3. While not a huge fan of Android, I’m ready for a bigger screen, NFC, and other features Apple is still waiting to introduce. When you leave a comment I’ll be notified on my Galaxy smart watch. Let the flaming commence.
Apple will never introduce NFC, because since very beginning Jobs meant to use (then) prospect Bluetooth 4/LE. It can do the same, but at 15 meters versus 5-10 cm, and much faster.
(Close proximity as security feature turned out to be stupid since there were a lot of security holes uncovered in NFC anyway; besides you can do telebank transactions via cellular networks which have range of hundreds of meters perfectly safe. When you will have Bluetooth 4/LE payment system, you to not need to “kiss” the stupid NFC sensor.)
Galaxy watch is a joke, according to all reviews.
Apple will release bigger phone, but it is going to be separate parallel model, not “iPhone 6”. So if you want two-hand-controlled phone, you will get it.
If that’s what floats your boat, anonymous MDN poster Dean Waterman, then fine. I can understand your desire for a bigger display – a fair number of people would like something larger than 4″. Your desire for NFC seems a bit strange to me. I am not aware of any “killer” NFC applications in the real world. But maybe you have a niche application of NFC that really makes you happy. Your comment about the Galaxy smart watch (Gear) is very surprising, since it has been pretty much universally panned. Of course, you have one of the two Samsung phone models that actually interface with the Galaxy Gear, so it is possible that you might actually find value in that $300 wrist uglifier. But it began seeming more likely that you had just left the “/s” off of the end of your post.
I won’t flame you for going Android if you have good reasons and don’t behave like a boorish troll on this forum. But it really sounds like you skipped out on the best (iPhone) for a larger display and a couple of dubious “advantages.” As my parents used to say, “It takes all kinds of people.”
” you have one of the two Samsung phone models that actually interface with the Galaxy Gear, so it is possible that you might actually find value in that $300 wrist uglifier” actually i know someone who owns one, and they really seem to enjoy it and it looks quite nice. And the Galaxy S III, S 4, Note II and Note 3 all work with the Gear, the 4 phones that most of their sales come from…
Funny isn’t it when Apple was apparently launching such a watch everyone (Samdroids in particular) claimed what possible use could it have and derided the whole idea, yet here we are as a very limited bulky and unimaginative device from Samsung suddenly ‘is really nice’. That said the new ones do at least look much better.
As for the flame wary poster there is little to add as others have noted the dead end nature of NFC and that some indeed do want a bigger screen phone and that should have been foreseen. However these other apparent ‘must have’ features that the iPhone doesn’t have are not noted which to me means that they are of little practical use if deemed even less important than NFC. So a challenge to you Dean, lets have these features spelled out so we ‘flamers’ can judge their relative importance & effectiveness or otherwise. Otherwise the comment is pointless FUD. Hope your watch can handle all that info by the way.
Who uses NFC. Certainly there’s very little take-up of the tech in the UK, outside of certain public transport systems, like London’s Oyster Card.
Oyster uses RFID not NFC.
Even Android supporters who review tech in the UK say the Galaxy watch is rubbish.
I’ll bet you can clear a bar in seconds when you start waving your plastic toys around.
Dean: You deserve NFC.
Me: You can keep NFC. It’s shite technology. All yours. Not allowed on my gear, ever. New York State stuck me with an NFC driver’s license/passport card. I have to keep the stupid thing in a FARADAY CAGE envelope so it can’t be scanned by any old granny passing by. Idiot technology. No wonder Bill Gates likes it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
Farm from being anonymous, I actually use my real name, and have posted often over the past few years. I am an avid Apple user, have been since 1982 when I first got my hands on the Apple II+. I know it’s a great world we live in when we can choose what we want, without belittling others for what they like. I still like Apple, but I am ready for other features and tired of waiting for Apple to release them every year, still behind what others do.
True you may not like NFC, but there are some things I find it quite useful for around my house; one being my Sony Bluetooth Speaker. It is handy, although I won’t use it much.
The Galaxy Gear Watch isn’t bad, and for what I need it for, is quite useful and practical. I am not sure why most reviewers trashed it, for it does a few things well. I know the next one will be an improvement.
I will most likely be back with Apple, but I must say I don’t use my iPad Mini much at all anymore since I have the Note 3, and can easily ready without straining my eyes or holding my iPhone 5s to my face so I can see better.
I sympathize with wanting a larger screen. The problem with going over 4″ is that the resulting screen isn’t large enough for me. Hence the reason I prefer the full-sized iPad. In fact if it came in 13″ I would buy that.
Now if I lived in a climate that required a coat or jacket most days I would totally go for a tween device in the 6″ to 8″ category.
I found the Galaxy Gear watch too thick to wear comfortably, but if a wearable fit into the volume of my current watch or less I would consider it seriously if only to have time and weather on my wrist.
Doesn’t exactly sound like you are expressing the wow factor here. Lets hear about the other features that so impress you so we can make an honest judgement otherwise it tends to sound simply like this is more a matter of geeky feature love for the sake of it, something I personally don’t want on my devices as they tend to destroy the user experience with useless distraction, complexity and bulk and why I tend to prefer Apple devices for their simplicity and feature set you actually need and use rather than throwing stuff in and seeing what sticks.
“Apple isn’t dead yet” <–OMFG. When isn’t Apple in a state of dying? Soooo unimaginative.
Apple Death Knell Counter @MacObserver
“all this copying and aping of Apple bounces back not well for Samsung”
No, Samsung has sold a lot of phones (much more than other Android phone assemblers) by copying Apple. Apple will continue to take the lions share of profit, Samsung will ship a lot of phones, and the tech press will praise Samsung for shipping a lot of phones.