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According to a new research, Apple’s iPhone 5 received the biggest customer backlash following its launch in 2012.
One in five posts on social networks were critical of Apple’s most recent handset, with the majority of people complaining about the introduction of a new power socket, the inaccuracy of Apple Maps and how similar the phone was to previous models.
Samsung’s Galaxy S4 received the least complaints – just 11% – according to figures from analysts We Are Social.
We Are Social scanned Twitter, blogs and forums following the launch of four major handsets – Apple’s iPhone 5 in September 2012, Samsung Galaxy S4 in March 2013, the BlackBerry Z10 launch event in January 2013 and Nokia’s launch of the Lumia 920, first announced in September 2012.
The iPhone 5 came in for a barrage of complaints for everything from its lack of innovation to its new power connector socket and its mapping application.
Apple added a Lightning to 30-pin power socket to the iPhone 5, which meant previous Apple users couldn’t use their older chargers to charge the new device.
Apple then charged extra for an adapter.
Previous iPhones used a Google mapping application but this was replaced with Apple Maps in the iPhone 5.
This led to complaints about misplacement of landmarks, poor satellite images and wrong directions.
Less than two weeks after the launch, Apple issued a statement apologizing for the frustration Apple Maps had caused customers and recommended they try alternative mapping apps.
There were also complaints about picture quality of photos taken on select iPhone 5s, with some customers saying there was a purple discoloration on images.
Other iPhone 5 owners were left angry when the coating on their handset chipped off, exposing bright aluminium underneath.
This became known as “scuffgate” when Apple refused to acknowledge the problem.
Other iPhone 5 users reported that white handsets leaked light behind the screen.
A study finds that Apple’s iPhone 5 is the most hated handset, while the majority of people love the Samsung Galaxy S4
Ed Kitchingman, senior analyst at We Are Social, said: “Brands were often on the receiving end of criticism for their handsets offering nothing new to the previous model.
“The most successful launches were those that captured the consumer’s imagination by talking about the handset’s new and innovative features.
“And while leaks can be an important tool in building success, give away too much and the handset loses its ‘wow’ factor upon launch.”
He said Samsung had the most “wow factor” with 56% of discussions being about new or different features with a particular emphasis on its eye tracking.
In contrast, only 29% of conversations about the iPhone 5 launch were focused on different features as dissent grows about the lack of innovation at Apple.
However, the iPhone 5 was by far the most talked-about launch on social media, with around 1.7 million conversations, compared to 300,000 mentions of the Z10, 140,000 references to the Galaxy S4 and 45,000 comments about the Lumia 920.
The research claims Apple still has the strongest brand loyalty, though, due to 42 per cent of conversations about the iPhone 5 launch based around the Apple brand itself.
Men dominate smartphone launch day conversations with 83% of all mentions coming from men and just 17% generated by women.
On a non-launch day, however, anywhere between 28% and 41% of conversations about mobile phones come from women.
Apple’s next iPhone could be announced on September 10 and go on sale ten days later, according to recent reports.
The phone – dubbed iPhone 5S – is rumored to have internet speeds around ten times as fast as 3G.
Analysts also expect a second, cheaper handset – dubbed iPhone 6 – to be announced as early as September 27.
It will be the first time in Apple’s iPhone history that the company has unveiled two handsets in the same month.
We Are Social’s figures contradict a recent study from Quality Insight in Korea.
The marketing firm surveyed 44,168 people about their handset and the iPhone was rated the best smartphone.
The participants said that the iPhone rarely failed, with only 17% complaining about technical issues with their Apple phone.
This is compared to 31% who reported issues with Samsung phones ranging from battery charging problems to screen quality issues.
Apple’s faults were related to touch or button errors.
How did the four major phone launches comapre?
Number of launch day conversations
iPhone 5 – 1.7 million
BlackBerry Z10 – 300,000
Galaxy S4 – 140,000
Lumia 920 – 45,000
Brand appeal: conversation based around the brand itself
iPhone 5 – 42%
BlackBerry Z10 – 41%
Lumia 920 – 41%
Galaxy S4 – 20%
Brand criticism: comments about the brands with a negative connotation
iPhone 5 – 20%
BlackBerry Z10 – 18%
Lumia 920 – 15%
Galaxy S4 – 11 %
Features: discussions about any new and different features of the handset
Galaxy S4 – 56%
Lumia 920 – 37%
iPhone 5 – 29%
BlackBerry Z10 – 27%
Samsung Electronics has reported a record quarterly profit in the first three months of 2013, boosted mainly by growing sales of its smartphones.
The South Korean company made a net profit of 7.15 trillion won ($6.4 billion) during the period, up from 5.05 trillion won a year ago. Profits also rose from the previous quarter.
Samsung’s results are in sharp contrast with rival Apple, which this week reported a drop in quarterly profits for the first time in a decade.
Samsung displaced Apple as the world’s biggest smartphone maker last year.
Bryan Ma of research firm IDC said that Samsung was doing “very very well right now”.
Samsung Electronics has reported a record quarterly profit in the first three months of 2013, boosted mainly by growing sales of its smartphones
“They have a lot of momentum behind what they are doing around phones, and clearly from a consumer perspective, they have a lot of excitement around their devices.
“They have a lot of their competitors wondering what they are going to do.”
Samsung has enjoyed great success with its smartphone division.
According to the latest figures, profits there rose more than 55% to 6.51 trillion won during q1 2013, from a year earlier.
Analysts said that a key factor behind Samsung’s success is that it offers a much broader range of models than its rival, Apple, which sells only the iPhone.
“It has a great strategy of targeting its devices to multiple consumer at multiple price points,” said Andrew Milroy of Frost & Sullivan.
Andrew Milroy explained that by offering a cheaper range of smartphones Samsung had been able to tap into a bigger share of consumers, especially in the emerging markets.
“The hardware Samsung is offering is as good as Apple in the eyes of many,” he said.
However, Samsung warned that growth in the lower-end smartphone market may slow in the coming months, not least because other manufacturers are also looking to enter the sector.
“We may experience stiffer competition in the mobile business due to expansion of the mid-to-low end smartphone market,” said Robert Yi, head of investor relations at Samsung Electronics.
Samsung’s latest smartphone offering, the Galaxy S4, is set to hit the stores on Saturday, April 27.
Launched earlier this year, Galaxy S4 allows users to control its screen using only their eyes and has the ability to take two different pictures at once.
Despite mixed reviews from critics, analysts expect it to generate robust sales. Some have even forecast sales of almost 22 million units in just the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s biggest rival, Apple, is not expected to introduce a new iPhone model at least till the latter half of the year.
Many analysts have said that should give Samsung an opportunity to further consolidate its position in the sector.
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Samsung Galaxy S4 has been launched last night revealing a last generation smart phone complete with a gallery of never-before-seen technology.
In a much-hyped public event, Samsung introduced the Galaxy S4 with an array of new features, including a few triggered with simply a wave of the hand.
The event at New York’s Radio City Music Hall – which featured a live orchestra, bubbly master of ceremonies and even a tap dance number – was streamed on Samsung’s YouTube channel.
Samsung Galaxy S4, which crams a 5-inch 1080p screen into body slightly smaller than the S III’s, will go sale globally in the April to June period.
Skinny but durable, the S4 is 69 mm wide, and 7.9 mm thick. It weighs just 130 grams, and is encased in polycarbonate.
The newest features involve different options for navigation. If the phone senses someone is looking at the screen, the user can tilt it forward or backwards to scroll up and down a Web page.
That feature falls slightly short of what some consumers may have expected after the New York Times reported that the phone would be able to scroll automatically by tracking readers’ eyes.
But what it can do is sense when it has someone’s attention. When a video is playing the stream will automatically pause if the person looks away from the device and it will restart when the eyes come back to the screen.
Texting while driving will be a thing of the past, as the smart phone’s voice recognition feature has the capability to dictate, reply, forward and save messages using only verbal commands.
The same voice recognition can be seen in the translator feature, which can understand nine languages.
Samsung has also made efforts to combat the issue of messy fingerprints, with a screen that now senses fingers hovering just above the screen, and applications that react.
The Mail application shows the first few lines of an email when a finger hovers above it in the list, and the Gallery application shows an expanded thumbnail.
Users can control some other applications by making gestures in the air above the phone.
In the browser, you can command the screen to scroll up by swiping from top to bottom a few inches from the phone.
The Camera application can now use both the front and rear cameras simultaneously, and can insert a picture of the photographer even as he or she is capturing the scene in front of them.
Samsung Galaxy S4 also has an erase feature, which allows the phone to take several pictures of a subject, then create a composite of the images to remove an unwanted photobomber.
In the US, Galaxy S4 will be sold by all four national carriers – Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA – as well as by smaller ones US Cellular and Cricket.
Samsung did not say what the phone will cost, but it can be expected to start at $200 with a two-year contract in the US.
JK Shin, the executive in charge of Samsung’s mobile communications division, promised the money would be well spent for a “life companion” that will “improve the way most people live every day”.
Samsung Galaxy S4, which crams a 5-inch 1080p screen into body slightly smaller than the S III’s, will go sale globally in the April to June period
Slightly thinner than its predecessor, the Galaxy S4 will go on sale next month.
The skinny but durable handset includes such special features as voice-recognition text messaging, translator software that can recognize 9 languages and an incredible touchscreen technology that toggles some features just by waving your finger.
It uses apps like Samsung’s WatchOn to bring on-demand video straight to the phone.
The cameras on each side of Galaxy S4 can be used in sync with each other, planting the photographer inside the photo he or she is taking. It also has an erase feature.
The phone also utilizes HomeSync, a way to store data on a cloud – and beam a photo across the world to be viewed on the home TV. Speaking of television, the smart phone can double as the remote
SAMSUNG GALAXY S4
Height: 136.6 mm (5.38 inches)
Width: 69 mm (2.72 inches)
Depth: 7.9 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight: 130 grams (4.59 ounces)
Touchscreen: 5in
Pixel density: 441 per inch
Display: 1920-by-1080 pixels
Network speeds: 3G and 4G LTE Lite
Camera: 13 megapixel in back-facing camera, 2 megapixel in front-facing
Voice recognition: Can translate 9 languages and utilizes voice-activated tools that can dictate, reply, forward or save text messages
Built-in apps: Video chat; internet browser; Gmail; Google Talk, Google Play Store; infrared LED; Google Maps; YouTube
Processor: 1.9GHz quad-core processor or 1.6GHz octa-core processor
Internal memory: 16GB; 32GB; or 64GB
Other memory: Data stored in Samsung’s HomeSync – a household cloud service
Battery: 2,600 mAh
Operating system: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
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Samsung is set to launch Galaxy S4, a device included its flagship premium smartphone range.
Galaxy S4 follows the S3, a handset that has sold more than 40 million units. The Galaxy handsets are seen as the closest competitor to Apple’s iPhone.
Analysts predict software that tracks where users are looking and automatically scrolls down the page as it is read, without it being touched.
There is also expected to be a souped-up camera and processor.
But crucial to Samsung’s future success, analysts say, is how the South Korean company plans to turn its strong position in the smartphone market into greater success with other devices such as tablets.
Prior to Thursday’s launch in New York, Samsung has unleashed a huge advertising campaign, including a series of videos involving a small boy tasked with looking after a “top secret” box.
Like the S3, Galaxy S4 is expected to run on Google’s Android operating system – but analysts are predicting some heavy customization from Samsung in order to give the device a more distinctive feel and, crucially, set it apart from its competitors’ Android-based handsets.
This is important, says Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza, if Samsung is to gain a higher level of loyalty to its device range.
Unlike with Apple, where a large number of iPhone owners gravitate towards the iPad when they decide to purchase a tablet, the same cannot be said of other brands, where customers more likely to mix and match.
“We will see more of a step towards more ‘stickiness’ towards the brand,” Roberta Cozza says.
“Already the Galaxy S3 can be seen as an alternative to the iPhone, [but] the integration that Apple offers with iPad is still not matched. Samsung is not there.”
The expectation Galaxy S4 will feature eye-tracking capability has been heightened by existing technology in the Galaxy S3 – the phone’s Smart Stay function stops the screen from dimming when somebody is looking at it.
Samsung is set to launch Galaxy S4, a device included its flagship premium smartphone range
Furthermore, the New York Times notes that Samsung filed for a couple of trademarks this year named “Eye Scroll” and “Eye Pause”.
Analysts also predict the standard array of upgrades – faster processor, better camera – and Roberta Cozza predicts we will see something of a small leap in a major area of Samsung’s expertise.
“I would think they will leverage some strength in display,” she says.
“Providing something on the display side that is different.”
Supposed leaked images of the phone show a device that is slightly bigger than Galaxy S3, but largely the same in appearance.
Another company relying on Galaxy S4 to follow successfully in the S3’s footsteps is Google.
Its Android software is used by more smartphone users than Apple’s iOS – but makes less money from apps and other related products.
Of the Android crowd, Samsung is streets ahead in market share, making more than 60% of all Android smartphones sold.
Some analysts believe this dominance could lead to Samsung looking at how it can assert far more control over the operating system – perhaps in a way similar to Amazon which, with its Kindle tablets, launched its own curated app store for its users to buy from instead of Google’s default shop.
As well as cutting out Google’s share of the app sale – a curated store also allows for applications designed specifically for a certain device, rather than the largely one-size-fits-all situation in the Google Play store.
Ovum’s principal device analyst, Tony Cripps, says Samsung needs to take these steps if it is to fend off the threat from other hardware manufacturers such as Chinese firm Huawei.
“While Samsung continues to grow its shipments impressively, the company undermines its own position in the broader ecosystem by providing Google a huge mobile platform from which to influence consumers, application developers and advertisers,” he says.
“It is very difficult for Samsung to achieve that level of influence itself while it depends on Google to supply device software and key applications and services through Android.
“Lacking a powerful ecosystem of its own clearly positions the company lower down in the value chain than either Google or Apple.”
With Apple suffering from a dipped share price, and a few recent missteps with product launches, the time is perhaps ripe for Samsung to pile pressure on the iPhone-maker.
“It is an important device for them because they have got to a point where they are competing head-to-head with Apple, creating a lot of expectation,” says Roberta Cozza.
“All eyes are on this device now.”
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