Now Samsung are calling iPhone owners “Wall Huggers,” a phrase first used by BlackBerry CEO John Chen, as Jordan Khan points out. Really, stealing from BlackBerry?
New Samsung ad brought to you by BlackBerry
Now Samsung are calling iPhone owners “Wall Huggers,” a phrase first used by BlackBerry CEO John Chen, as Jordan Khan points out. Really, stealing from BlackBerry?
Like they always say “Steal from the best”! Um, sorry, nevermind.
That’s an odd choice. I don’t usually hear iPhone users complaining about battery life. I know some would like a removable battery, but it’s hardly “a thing” that iPhones have bad battery life.
Samesung strikes again.
It’s funny too what a lame argument it was back then, and even is more so now. I’ve never wished the iPhone could have interchangeable batteries. Ever.
Samsung seems to think they can fool people. Do a Twitter search for “samsung sucks” and see how many complaints are about battery life. Do a Twitter search for iPhone sucks, find the ones about iPhone (and not ‘Phone’) and do the same thing. What results do you get?
That short term strategy of fooling people is not going to last, and all those people will leave unsatisfied later. No smartphone has great battery life. Interchangeable batteries are not exactly great if, like nearly every person (stupid enough to fall for these commercials), they don’t buy that extra battery, then their satisfaction will suffer. They’ll move to another brand after enough bad incidents.
Complaining about battery is a smart thing. iPhones that are new get great battery life (as do Samsung devices that are new) but as time wears down battery life fades. People who keep their phone plugged in frequently will see less of a problem. But power users are more likely to complain. My iPhone’s battery is starting to go close to the two year mark. (Had to buy a lightning cable for at work to plug in while at work. The other day I was out and about and my battery life was really crappy I had to recharge from my MacBook twice through the course of the day. Though I was doing a lot of work in direct sunlight and with GPS.
Still though, it’s a smart idea since it targets the people who’s phones are old and probably due for an upgrade.
Apple releases internal training video for samsung designers – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OxlIHe_1r8
Shame that you couldn’t say buy a case that held a battery. Same result just different.
I keep seeing people compare the Samsung ads to the “I’m a PC” campaign (including in the comments section of the article).
What I’ve really noticed, though, is that they’re totally different – the “I’m a PC” campaign didn’t bash PC users, it pointed out differences between PCs and Macs.
Samsung’s ads, on the other hand, are all about bashing the people who buy iPhone. They’re not bashing the iPhone, just the people who use them. The “queuing for the new iPhone” people, and now the “wall huggers”.
I watched the “I’m a PC” campaign when I was a Windows user, and now watching the Samsung campaign as an iPhone user, and the impression I get from the two campaigns is wildly different. Samsung is just… insulting, it does nothing to convince me that the Galaxy is better.
Samsung has a low-battery mode that cripples the phone, AND a swappable battery. Why would you need either of these if it had sufficient battery life? Cognitive dissonance at its best.
Whatever, I have had my iPhone 5 for almost two years and the personally I have not notice much if any battery degradation. When I travel, I turn off certain features I don’t need while in transit. Never have I ran out of juice. Then again, I am not one of those folks that is compeled to be texting or on his phone continuously. I had a iPod Photo, yes the one they sold back in 2004. The battery finally gave up after ten years. How many can say the same from a Samsung device.
Not to mention that as Steve pointed out, PC is the one that makes the ads work, and you feel bad for him. He’s lovable.
According to Anandtech, the iPhone 5s has about 85% the battery life as the S5. This is not exactly the huge difference this ad would suggest. And this is a comparison between the 2014 Samsung phone with the 2013 Apple phone.
They do fool people. Carrier stores rely on that, and assist in the process. And remember that many consumers have short attention spans for tech.
Not only that, but “Mac” was almost always trying to help him out and make him feel better about his shortcomings.
Which of course is why the blogosphere called him “smug.”
The images in this commercial remind me of the week or two after our area lost power from Superstorm Sandy. I started carrying a power strip in my backpack when making the daily coffee run.
No matter what phone you use, I feel it’s safe to guess that this commercial is something of an exaggeration, outside of airport terminals undergoing takeoff delays of more than five hours.
That’s true, these strategies do often fool people. But to what end? What Is the incentive for a cellular carrier to offer Samsung over Apple? Are the margins that high against the volume that Apple sells to really be worth it or are they being short sighted. Or worse, biased? Which leads back to the question of what the point of this is. Why have people always been so against Apple? It boggles the mind.
I can’t imagine the margins are very high when we factor in the manufacturer-paid bonuses that carrier-store employees get for selling specific phones. But that boosts sales enough to capture a bunch of two-year contracts, and everyone’s happy for another quarter.
Trash-talking Apple helps that short-term game along, as it always has.
Let’s be honest. There’s some truth to this. But the complete truth is that this is a pervasive problem that plagues every phone. Sure, there are fractions of iPhone and Android devotees who would swear they only need to charge once every two days. But that’s just not the norm and likely only true if they turn off LTE/3G/WiFi. To boot, this is a poorly scripted ad. No subtlety at all. It would have worked far better without a narrator. Let the picture spell out the message. Don’t treat the audience as dumb, Samsung.
Well, this iPhone user would like improved battery life. Every iPhone I have owned progressively lasts fewer and fewer hours between charges. But this is also true of most smartphones out there. It’s hypocritical of Samsung to highlight this as an iPhone problem. It’s only fanboy-blindness to deny that battery life is not iPhone’s best feature.
Please don’t use the F word. No one ever turned down better battery life, but the complaint I’ve heard most is about screen size. Rarely about battery life, but of course it could be better.
Regarding calling people “fanboys” — I’m typing this to you on my computer which is tethered to my Android phone. You’re always better off not using that word as it just shuts down conversations and brings you down to the level of, ahem, people who comment on the bottom of blog posts. 🙂
I took him as saying “fanboy” in regards to Samsung trying to say battery life issues were just an iPhone problem and thereby making an ad really targeted at fanboys and not to potential customers. Didn’t read it as against you at all, Nate 🙂 Granted, I could be misreading 🙂
On that front, I’m more than happy with the battery life in my new-to-me iPhone 5. I can get a couple days depending on my use, and that’s with wifi, bluetooth and GPD turned on. I see less when I do a lot of phone calls, but it’s similar or better to the android phones I’ve had previously. Like all batteries,, even though it’s already used, I’ll probably see a decline over time. We’ll see.
So basically, Samsung is saying, “Our battery life is just as bad, but at least you can change out the battery.” Thanks but no thanks, Samsung… I’ll keep my superior phone and use an external battery charger in the rare times I need it. Smaller than an extra battery (I have one of the lipstick-sized ones) and no wall-hugging for me!