The two flagship smartphones renew hostilities in 2015
After a 2014 in which Apple dominated the mobile sphere, Samsung will be hoping to gain some ground on the market leader during the next twelve months. This could prove to be easier said than done considering the torrent of outstanding results and achievements which Apple has collected in recent months.
It was recently announced that Apple had become the world’s first public company to be valued at over $700 billion, and shortly after this Apple also achieved the largest single quarter profit which has ever been recorded. By contrast, Samsung was forced to tolerate a 60 percent plummeting in profit last year, and even the hierarchy of the company has publicly admitted that its device strategy has been a little lacklustre of late.
But Samsung has the opportunity to put this right with the Galaxy S6, which will be the first major smartphone release of 2015, and certainly one of the most significant. The Galaxy S series is viewed as very much the major contender to the relentlessly successful iPhone, and Samsung will be hoping this flagship device release ensures an excellent start to the year for the Korean manufacturer.
Apple will not release the iPhone 7 until much later in the year, but consumers will by October time be faced with a tricky decision between the two market leading smartphones. So should consumers splash out for a Samsung Galaxy S6 when it is released in April, or wait 6 months for the next generation iPhone 7?
Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 7
Design
The first thing to consider with any smartphone is its design and physical appearance. Although Apple is bemoaned by its critics for the emphasis which it places on physical construction and the iPhone’s identity as a fashion item, one shouldn’t underestimate the significance of this. The Galaxy S5 was derided when it was released for too strongly resembling the previous iteration of the Galaxy S range, and also for its plasticky facade which was not to the taste of many critics.
With rumors and leaks both indicating that Samsung will shift to a more metallic make up for its next generation Galaxy S6, there was interesting news in the last week or so regarding the appearance of its device. According to reports, Apple may be a little prickly with Samsung, owing to the similarity between the Galaxy S6 build and that of the iPhone.
So there may not be too much to choose between the two in this department, but Apple has consistently delivered outstanding devices, and retains a fashion and street cred which Samsung has simply found impossible to match.
Technology
There are already tons of rumors circulating regarding what both Samsung and Apple will include in their next-generation mobiles, and it will be intriguing to see how many of these reports come to fruition. Certainly Samsung has made a massive reputation for its mobile devices with the display technology it has included in them recently, and it is very much expected that the Galaxy S6 will be his first quad HD smartphone.
Apple may not have matched the screen quality of the Galaxy range in the iPhone 6, but the iPhone 7 is expected to deliver a full HD smartphone and a quad HD phablet. Additionally, there are already strong murmurings that Apple will be hugely upgrading the camera included in the iPhone 7, with some rumors suggesting that it will be capable of producing photographs of professional quality.
Meanwhile, both devices are expected to step up security provisions within their respective units, and Apple in particular has applied for numerous interesting patents over the last couple of years.
Functionality
This is the area where Apple has always scored extremely highly. The fact that it develops both its own proprietary software and hardware has always meant that utilizing the iPhone series is particularly slick and pleasurable. The Apple App Store is also extremely highly regarded, and ensures that iPhone users are never short of ways to use their iPhone both at home and in public.
Although some mobile users favor the open-ended nature of Android, Samsung has had to acknowledge that Apple is more accurately meeting the needs of consumers with recent device releases. So although Samsung always packs its devices with impressive specifications, and is comparable to any company in the market in this regard, in terms of the actual feature set and functionality of the smartphone, the iPhone 7 may retain a significant edge.
Payment and Smartwatch tie-in
One of the elements that Apple fans are particularly looking forward to with the next generation iPhone 7 is its tie-in with the forthcoming Apple Watch. While there is a fitness-related focus to the feature set off Apple’s first smartwatch, it is also noteworthy that mobile payment is likely to be a major part of marketing related to it. Aanlysts already believe that Apple Watch will have a significant impact on the mobile payment marketplace, and it will be interesting to see how this technology grows in the coming year.
Samsung has already announced Samsung Pay in a seemingly direct response to Apple Pay, and given that Samsung sells as many mobile devices as Apple, one cannot write off this proprietarily technology too lightly. What can be said in mitigation is that it has not achieved the same sort of publicity and buzz as Apple Pay, and Samsung will know that it has his work cut out to make an impact in this market on which Apple has grand designs, and within which Google is already extremely prominent.
Conclusion
The Galaxy S series has always appealed to people who want a more flexible and customizable experience, and particularly those that know they are getting the state of the art in mobile technology. Meanwhile, Apple has always traded on the slickness of its user experience, with the iPhone 6 regarded as another exemplary example of this.
Apple may have been winning the propaganda war over the last twelve months, not to mention the commercial sales battle, but the two devices will probably continue to attract similar audiences when the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 7 hit the stores.
