Google, Apple and Samsung all Have their Differentiation, Good and Bad
The three heavyweights of the cell phone industry have been taking swings at each other for years. The Differentiation between the three is wide in some areas and hardly recognizable in others. All three companies have a great social media presence and have some of the most easy to remember commercials that air on a regular basis.
All three market to different crowds and that is what makes them so hard and fun to compare. Samsung has the best phones on the planet, in my opinion, even though all three phones are all very good. Google quit trying to compete with Apple and Samsung years ago in producing top quality phones. Apple and Samsung keep swinging for the fences to phone sales and market share. Samsung runs the Android operating system and is why it is aligned so close with Google.
Google Keeps Differentiation at the Forefront with Android
You have to keep Google in the conversation because their Android operating system dominates the smart phone and tablet market. They have their operating system on all brands of smart phones and tablets in all price ranges. It is an open source code that anyone with the coding ability can change the system as long as they publish the changes to the change log so others can use it as well.
Apple’s iOs is a closed system that is built like a fortress controlled by Apple. This is why it is called a smart phone for dummies. You just charge it and turn it on and it works right out of the box. Android’s phones do as well, but you have to have some tech savvy to operate and Android phone to get the most out of the operating system.
Samsung makes the high end Galaxy phones to compete with the iPhone and its high end models and therefore they both for the teen, college age kids and young professional crowds. They know they are the ones that will be buying a new phone every 1-3 years, where older crowds tend to keep their longer.
Google caters to the middle of the road crowd where their highest priced phones and equal to the Samsung and Apple mid-grade phones. They are made much better than their counterparts as well, they just don’t have all the bells and whistles. This is where the differentiation is most recognizable.
Main Differences in Operating Systems is Androids’ Flexibility
Apple and Samsung commercials are upbeat and have a lot of moving parts and are fun to watch. I know when I moved from Apple to my Samsung Galaxy 6 or 7 years ago I found myself working more from my phone than I did with my iPhone 6S. I had just purchased the Samsung Galaxy 6 that had the curved screen and once I got used to the android operating system I was hooked. The things you could do to with the Samsung phone was incredible. It was like a new world opened up.
Samsung caters to those young students and professionals on social media. Eventually Apple went from having 3/4th of the phone market to Samsung taking over the market share lead in 2016 with over 37% of the market. This was mainly on social media trolling Apple and showcasing exactly what the Galaxy series of phones does best. What Apple does is amazing since it uses only traditional media for the most part. That means word of mouth is outstanding. Samsung utilizes all social media platforms. Apple leads in the US markets and Samsung globally because of this.
Apple is considered a tech leader and Samsung a follower, and has been a long time. In reality, though Samsung took over and was introducing many things to the smartphone industry before Apple once they launched their Galaxy line. This war between Apple and Samsung has hit the boiling point several times over the years. The Google Pixel has to stay in the conversation because it they are trying to make the “smarter phone” than Apple has. With this being the case that means Samsung will be right behind them because Samsung phones are loaded with Samsung native apps along with all the google native apps and you can swap between the simultaneously.
It will be interesting to see if Apple moves towards more social media marketing than mostly television commercials and how that affects things for all three of these companies down the road.