Samsung and Apple have been close competitors in the iPhone market, and the competition is set to get tougher with Samsung’s announcement about the launch of its flagship smartphone next month, the Samsung Galaxy S IV. It is true that Samsung has always been the second in this race, and that Apple smartphones guarantee users a unique experience indeed. However, market dynamics always change, and hence with this latest product launch, analysts are wondering if Samsung would inch closer to its victory over Apple products, or simply sink like a stone. Here are three ways in which Samsung could improve their latest product and overtake Apple in its hegemony in the smartphone market.
Introduce The “Magic” Element
For six whole years since its launch, the Apple iPhone has managed to impress users and leave them awe-struck with features like fluid animations that instantly respond to touch and sensors that detect and respond to finger swipes even while the device is in sleep mode. Samsung is also fully geared to deliver this magical experience to users with its Smart Stay feature that operates by using a front facing camera to ascertain whether users are looking at the screen without timing-out altogether. Now it is only conjectural to wonder if the Galaxy S IV will develop this feature any further, but if it does, and Samsung can come up with a technology by which the user can unlock the screen and operate the phone simply by looking at it, or speaking to it, then it would indeed be magical, perhaps even more magical than the Apple smartphone.
Improved Ecosystem
The tie up between iPhones and iTunes, the software and the store has been a major factor leading to Apple’s success. iCloud, with its verified and dependable backup system for data and pictures has only helped to take Apple’s success story further.
Samsung’s ecosystem, compared to Apple’s is much weaker. The multiple digital storefronts called “hubs”, third-party partnerships with SugarSync and Dropbox, and the cloud-storage system named AllShare are disorganized compared to Apple.
The launch of Galaxy S IV will give Samsung a new opportunity to organize its ecosystem. It can either do away with the partnerships, or simply use Google Play, which might not be perfect, but is definitely consistent.
More Features, Fewer Tricks
With its previous product, Galaxy S III, Samsung had launched a lot of features, the usefulness of many being questionable. While Smart Stay was a huge success, others like Share Shot, a feature that allowed users to share pictures taken at an event or gathering, did not go down quite well with the users.
With its new product, Samsung can follow a different marketing strategy, that is, concentrate on quality than quantity. It can just concentrate on one or two features and develop them exceptionally well, rather than launch a basket-full of features where some of them do not function properly. This is the only way to beat Apple’s list of successful products like Retina Display, Siri, FaceTime and iCloud.
