If your last paragraph turns out to be true, that'll be a real shame. And I think you know it.
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Galaxy S7
- Thread starter nviz22
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If your last paragraph turns out to be true, that'll be a real shame. And I think you know it.
Sad or not, it IS the truth. We've been having this exact same discussion twice a year--when the Galaxies and iPhones are announced/released. And what has changed the past few years? There are no mass migrations of customers from the iPhone. And there won't be again this year, not to other high end Android handsets. People just don't care about this stuff like that.
The pressure on the iPhone will come from those $300-$500 phones that are starting to fill the market, a segment that's no longer producing the dregs it one did but rather very good smartphones for significantly less. The move away from subsidized pricing on 2 year contracts has opened people's eyes--they were OK paying $199-299 every 2 years for their phone but now that they see that same iPhone, Galaxy, or Note costing $650-$850...
.And with that I'll stop derailing the discussion from the S7 itself. It really is a wondering looking piece of tech and I'm not trying to diminish that.
I agree.Sad or not, it IS the truth. We've been having this exact same discussion twice a year--when the Galaxies and iPhones are announced/released. And what has changed the past few years? There are no mass migrations of customers from the iPhone. And there won't be again this year, not to other high end Android handsets. People just don't care about this stuff like that.
The pressure on the iPhone will come from those $300-$500 phones that are starting to fill the market, a segment that's no longer producing the dregs it one did but rather very good smartphones for significantly less. The move away from subsidized pricing on 2 year contracts has opened people's eyes--they were OK paying $199-299 every 2 years for their phone but now that they see that same iPhone, Galaxy, or Note costing $650-$850...
And with that I'll stop derailing the discussion from the S7 itself. It really is a wondering looking piece of tech and I'm not trying to diminish that.
People may seem it, but they are not stupid. When they go to buy a phone, they can see the difference between $35 a month and 19, and if there isn't any major discrepancy in performance and reliability, the more expensive phone loses out. It is only a matter of time, and it is honestly good for the customer as it pushes competitive pricing at the forefront of the market. That being said like you I am NOT trying to derail the s7. I already have it preordered, and cannot wait for it to arrive
I agree. If people were happy iPhone users they'll be less inclined to switch because there's no reason to in their eyes. The main thing Apple offers that others don't is a unique mobile os. One that has an established App Store, easy to learn, and nice hardware. And top level after sales support and updates because most people don't frequent macrumors or xda, etc. to spend time troubleshooting on their own or researching changing roms or rooting/jail breaking.
Imo android oems push the specs, which are nice btw, because they must differentiate from each other. The mid price market imo affects both but moreso a company like Samsung because most mid price phones run android.
The worst thing Samsung did was have so many Galaxy phones. It confuses the consumers overall and dilutes the perceived quality of the name. While it's better now those consumers don't forget their negative experiences and why they switched. It goes back to Apple support as well. Consumers remember good customer service. They'll remember when they got an iPhone or iPad or any Apple product replaced no questions asked or a repair complimentary. Or if a store isn't close Apple overnighting a replacement before you have to give yours in return so that you'll have a phone. At the least they'll appreciate friendly staff that at least act like they care and not direct you to a carrier store for issues. People are willing to pay a premium for that and so far Apple has been the best in that area. Phones and tech change all the time but the consistency of good customer service keeps customers coming back.
With that said I stopped by bb today. The s7 is nice indeed. I'd go black for sure. Please get rid of the front logo.
Haven't posted on the forums in a long time but had to come back and say wow, the S7 Edge is a gorgeous phone. Played with one at best buy today and most likely the silver titanium color will be my next device.
Typical usual folks getting over excited about another Samsung flagship release and then asking how people can consider an iPhone. This S7 or rather S6S doesn't offer anything new. Its only you geeks that care about 3gb vs 4gb ram, benchmark scores, low light pics, tv remote feature.
So let me tell you again why the iPhone 7 sales will continue to destroy S7 sales without knowing what the iPhone 7 will bring spec wise.
BRAND. The iphone product is the prestige brand, the designer product.
The Samsung is the cheap ordinary product that in the S7 is the top end of this ordinary brand product. The iPhone is the designer shirt, the hermes belt, the AP watch. The Samsung S7 is the supermarket shirt made with a nice fabric , the supermarket belt made with premium leather, the casio watch with satellite features.
I cant stop laughing about all the constant comments about Samsung leading the way given their history.
Also why has Samsung still not yet made one decent tablet after all these years. Likewise with their wearables. In short the Samsung brand is not highly appreciated overall by most people. 5 hardcore macrumors Samsung lovers are not going to change this fact. People look to Samsung for their cheap stuff.
So let me tell you again why the iPhone 7 sales will continue to destroy S7 sales without knowing what the iPhone 7 will bring spec wise.
BRAND. The iphone product is the prestige brand, the designer product.
The Samsung is the cheap ordinary product that in the S7 is the top end of this ordinary brand product. The iPhone is the designer shirt, the hermes belt, the AP watch. The Samsung S7 is the supermarket shirt made with a nice fabric , the supermarket belt made with premium leather, the casio watch with satellite features.
I cant stop laughing about all the constant comments about Samsung leading the way given their history.
Also why has Samsung still not yet made one decent tablet after all these years. Likewise with their wearables. In short the Samsung brand is not highly appreciated overall by most people. 5 hardcore macrumors Samsung lovers are not going to change this fact. People look to Samsung for their cheap stuff.
Well I'm glad you got that off your chest. Good for you. Now back on topic
***slow clap***
I'm not even going to address this post, beyond this: thanks for the input, got to love the added irrantionallity.
LOL
Sorry to tell you, but the iPhone is the Bic Mac at McDonald's or the Honda Accord of smartphones, it's generic and boring. Everyone has one, it's mainly for grandparents and teenagers who are just getting their first smartphone, and want something dumbed-down and simple to use. Sure it has great design and high end build quality, but in 2016, all flagship phones do now a days. Samsung, LG, HTC, the Nexus 6P, they are all built great.
I see a lot of people and known Apple fans downplay the accomplishments of the S7 as they did the S6 and Note 5. That despite the accomplishments it will not make difference to the average consumer. I don't agree. I think the tech industry is talking about the S7 and the hardware and software features and it trickles down. Then the reps in the carrier stores are going to push potential new/upgrade customers to the newer tech. I think some apologise for Apple not having the latest hardware specs because well......it doesn't have it.
Like benchmarks. Android won all the benchmarks for years. Apple faithful downplayed it and spoke of user experience.
Then when Apple hardware caught up and passed Android in benchmarks.....all of a sudden benchmarks were a big thing.
Personally I don't think benchmarks are indicative of overall performance and end user satisfaction. No matter who is on top.
When people are talking about a product and it gets positive publicity from the media and the people helping the consumer make buying decisions....it will have an effect. I am not saying it doom and gloom for the competition. But it will have an effect.
I do agree with Tbayrgs that the biggest competition right now is a lot of the midrange lower cost phones. Technology has evolved so much that these devices are appealing to the average consumer who is not tech savvy and just looking at a price points.
Like benchmarks. Android won all the benchmarks for years. Apple faithful downplayed it and spoke of user experience.
Then when Apple hardware caught up and passed Android in benchmarks.....all of a sudden benchmarks were a big thing.
Personally I don't think benchmarks are indicative of overall performance and end user satisfaction. No matter who is on top.
When people are talking about a product and it gets positive publicity from the media and the people helping the consumer make buying decisions....it will have an effect. I am not saying it doom and gloom for the competition. But it will have an effect.
I do agree with Tbayrgs that the biggest competition right now is a lot of the midrange lower cost phones. Technology has evolved so much that these devices are appealing to the average consumer who is not tech savvy and just looking at a price points.
That's a bad analogy. The Big Mac? So people are paying a premium for Big Macs now? Does McDonald's give you after sales customer support after you've eaten it? The iPhone is the iPhone. Can't really compare it to a burger or a car.
Lol @ iPhones for teenagers and grandparents. The biggest demographic for iPhone users is age 25-34, second being 18-24. I'm sorry it's boring to you. But again it's not about us here on this forum. They don't care about what we think is boring or exciting. Because us enthusiasts make up a fraction of their market.
Yep. This is definitely the case with Android. We are enthusiasts here, whilst we are willing to waste money on new handsets every few months (or less), the average consumer is less inclined and will update/upgrade only when necessary. The fact that the mid range has improved to such an extent is great for the 'majority' of Android users who aren't buying the latest flagships, but fall in the middle ground.
Anyway ....
So cancelled the order with Amazon today, and ordered from 3 Ireland. Little irked that they charged my Credit Card straight away despite it being a pre-order (I think that's a bad practice in principal) but hey ho, it's ordered now and should be here 3 days earlier than store release, so 8th March.
Not sure if the Gear VR ships with it, or if that is sent out after.
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I don't know about the UK, but I'm pretty sure I saw UK csrires listed on the Samsung website.
Just search gear VR promo. You'll get a website that you can put your email in. Then in the near future you'll submit your proof of purchase to Samsung, directly through that website, and they will send you the VR.
I wouldn't be surprised if they don't wait until a few weeks after the promotion ends, to allow submission. Prevents people from buying and returning the phone, just to get the VR to use/sale.
Is that on prepay? Probably sim locked to three ireland. It's a better price than I got in the UK but I know mine will be sim free.
But I will say this one last thing on the iPhone. I do give credit to Apple for designing a great phone, and superb build quality, and powerful hardware in the S version. But...I wish there was at least some basic form of customization on the iPhone, just something so simple as "Themes"
The one thing I dislike on the iPhone, is how it looks the same as all the other tens of million of iPhone's. Why can't they allow icon packs, or a basic theme engine, and options to change the animation speed or style, and for the love of God let me place the icons anywhere on the home screen, not forced to be in a row from top on down. That's all I would really like to see added, to allow users to make your phone feel like it's yours, and has some individuality on it, and not just like everyone else.
Apple could easily add that to iOS if they wanted, and maybe do it even better than Android, because Apple is very artistic and great at design. Will we we ever see this happen?
And I am talking about without Jailbreak, this should be a stock option, for all users, not just the very small JB crowd, left on older firmware.
The one thing I dislike on the iPhone, is how it looks the same as all the other tens of million of iPhone's. Why can't they allow icon packs, or a basic theme engine, and options to change the animation speed or style, and for the love of God let me place the icons anywhere on the home screen, not forced to be in a row from top on down. That's all I would really like to see added, to allow users to make your phone feel like it's yours, and has some individuality on it, and not just like everyone else.
Apple could easily add that to iOS if they wanted, and maybe do it even better than Android, because Apple is very artistic and great at design. Will we we ever see this happen?
And I am talking about without Jailbreak, this should be a stock option, for all users, not just the very small JB crowd, left on older firmware.
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I remember Jony Ive criticized Motorola for giving customers the ability to customize their Moto X phone... He mention that good design is believing in your design.
With Jony Ive at the reign... I don't see Apple allowing theming in the near future. I like Android.. And the customization it gives, but then.. Some people don't care to tinker with all that stuff.
Well if that's the case, as long as Ive is in charge, I won't be buying an iPhone anytime soon then, as will many Android fans stay away.
Theming could be made super simple easy if they wanted. Just make it a one click operation, to change the look of your phone. I like options, if you don't want to theme, then don't use it, but at least give us the option
I really like how Samsung added a great theme engine starting with the Galaxy S6, and my Note 5 is is easy to theme, just go to the Samsung store, pick a theme, install it, and bam, you have a totally different looking phone. Hopefully that's still there and better on the S7 ?
No I don't think you carefully read what I said. Most consumers DO care about those things, they just elect to live without them to have an Apple phone. If that weren't true then we wouldn't see the massive adoption rates Apple has whenever they release a new model, consumers would just stay on the older model. You have to understand Apple as a company has some kind of market appeal that no one else has. The closest I can come to is maybe Sony in the 90s.
I think you are misunderstanding me as well, I'm NOT saying the S7 will overtake the iPhone. If anything I think it will semi-flop just like the S6 did. I was simply debating the point that Apple users don't care about specs. Samsung will sink their own ship with their horrible customer service and the performance of Touchwiz, which are in stark contrast with Apple regardless of their other shortcomings.
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Great points and agree with most.
I think Samsung has failed to capture a lot of the market share simply from your last paragraph.
They could compete with great customer service simply by making all the Samsung experience shops in BestBuy's a customer service portal to get repairs/replacements done. Add extra staff to an already great existing space and its a great selling point to know they offer the customer service to go along with their products.
I agree and disagree on TW if that makes sense. It can stand improvements. Some of it's perceived failings are from extreme use cases.
Samsung's rebate/promo process is terrible, I'm still waiting on some rebates from my Note 5 and others were disallowed because they were sent in on time, but for some reason they only allowed me from the t ime I called in to find out what was happening with the rebate. I just received my level 1 headphones and battery cell the other day for a rebate I put in about 3 months ago.
IMO Samsung needs to seriously push these phones, Hell I'd bundle the gear and/or the VR with the phone right there on the shelf. For Samsung to compete they need to sell the S7 cheaper than the iPhone, but this would ruin it's flagship status. Easy solution keep the price the same but add more incentives like a free watch. Ifyou want to be a crack dealer you first have to get your customers hooked, Samsung needs to bring in more consumers even if they have to lose money to do it. After all they have been losing money anyway.
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I think just allowing a dark/night theme would be incredible. It's crazy to think that people really want so much white/bright when using the phone at night or in the dark. The white on off white design of iOS is the EPITOME of bad design.
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I agree about Touchwiz, it's NOT as bad as many make it out, but it's not iOS smooth yet. But it does seem to have a reputation. Every time a Samsung flagship is released you will see headlines everywhere on how they streamlined touchwiz. A major point in every review will be how touchwiz performs. There exists a negative reputation and Samsung needs to divert ALL of its energy into making Touchwiz pristine.
Completely agree on the Best Buy Samsung warranty thing, heck I doubt they even need to hire extra staff. I regularly see 1-2 Samsung employees there and that should be enough to handle people with warranty claims.
Interesting news if true:
http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-and-galaxy-s7-edge-lock-to-carrier-sim-676653/
As Samsung seems to be typically bought on contract, I guess this isn't really any different. But this would seem to disprove the rumor of different carriers getting different CPUs.
The extraction of carrier bloat is interesting too. So if you ever swap sims to a different carrier, I guess you would have to re-setup the whole phone?
http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-and-galaxy-s7-edge-lock-to-carrier-sim-676653/
As Samsung seems to be typically bought on contract, I guess this isn't really any different. But this would seem to disprove the rumor of different carriers getting different CPUs.
The extraction of carrier bloat is interesting too. So if you ever swap sims to a different carrier, I guess you would have to re-setup the whole phone?
I'm a Android fan.. I've had the Note 4, Galaxy s6. And I do admit the theming engine implemented in the Galaxy phones are pretty coo.
But I prefer the iPhone over Android is that I'm heavily invested in the ecosystem. And the apps are more polished.
It's not a make or break for me that theming should be available for the iPhone. But I do understand that it would be nice to have the choice. But what happens if Apple do implement theming and it's buggy? I don't even use third-party keyboards cause it's buggy.