Interesting stats on Samsung and it's Users in the Android world.

[Jibbajabba]

if samsung doesn't improve touchwiz and move to more premium material for their phones it will take no time for HTC, Sony, LG, etc. to destroy samsung's dominance.

Geeks know how to easily get rid of Touchwiz and non-geeks don't even know the difference. Most iPhone users I can see here on the train have their iPhone 5 in cheap plastic cases, so much for premium material.

We got 30 staff and all need phones. Our policy is that each individual can choose their phone after probation.

Out of 30 we got 21!! S3/S4s, two iPhone 5 (one is even a private one and he didn't want a new one), two HTC one, 3 Nokias and two Blackberries.

Plastic and TW is clearly not an issue in our company.

 

[dkersten]

It makes me laugh you actually believe that BS. You must really think people are stupid. Like they can't help themselves. That they'll buy any inferior product because of marketing. If marketing is all it takes then you better go run off and tell the other Android OEMs. Don't bother wasting any money on R&D, spend it all on marketing a crappy product. Because it will sell. All you need to do is market it non stop. Bad word of mouth on a crappy product has no chance against marketing. Foolish mortal.

Let's see how HTC's new massive marketing plan with Robert Downey Jr turns out.

You are right to a certain extent. If a product is crap, it won't sell no matter how heavily marketed it is. However, we have gotten to a point in smartphone technology where nearly every flagship released by a company is going to be good, and at the worst, respectable. No one has a huge lead in hardware or software anymore, its all based on preference, price, and marketing. This is where Apple and Samsung excel as they have the budget to market their devices.

Lets put it this way. I don't know a lot about cars. However if I were in the market to buy a car, I would probably start my research on cars that I've seen on commercials frequently. That doesn't guarantee I'll pick one of those cars, but the chances are higher.

Obviously there are more factors to this, but I believe marketing is one of the most important if not the most important.

 

[Savor]

You are right to a certain extent. If a product is crap, it won't sell no matter how heavily marketed it is. However, we have gotten to a point in smartphone technology where nearly every flagship released by a company is going to be good, and at the worst, respectable. No one has a huge lead in hardware or software anymore, its all based on preference, price, and marketing. This is where Apple and Samsung excel as they have the budget to market their devices.

Lets put it this way. I don't know a lot about cars. However if I were in the market to buy a car, I would probably start my research on cars that I've seen on commercials frequently. That doesn't guarantee I'll pick one of those cars, but the chances are higher.

Obviously there are more factors to this, but I believe marketing is one of the most important if not the most important.

Reasonable post.

Most of us know the difference between being the best and being the most popular.

Being the best or making the best phone is subjective.

Being popular could be like saying Justin Bieber sells more records but it doesnt mean he is a music *cough* artist like say Bob Dylan.

At this point, Samsung is clearly the most popular vendor. Doesnt mean they make inferior products. But it doesnt mean their products are much more superior to others.

 

[Stuntman06]

Exactly

Samsung sells better than HTC, LG, Sony, etc because they can afford to put more into advertising and marketing. That's all

It makes me laugh that people actually think Samsung is blowing away the competition from a technical or usability aspect just because of the sales numbers

At least with my personal experience with a Samsung phone (Galaxy S3) and an HTC phone (Desire Z), the Samsung one is definitely more stable. I'm one who prefers landscape slider keyboards. I've put up with the SGS3 and tolerated the lack of a keyboard until I got used to it because the phone simply blew me away. I was reluctant to get the SGS3, but in hindsight, I'm glad I got it.

I do use Nova Prime launcher which ads much more functionality to the home screens. It hides some, but not all aspects of TouchWiz. There really isn't much that I didn't like about TW. Just Nova gave me the ability to make more efficient use of the home screen like adding more rows and getting rid of the dock.

I do agree that Samsung invests more in marketing than the others. The quality of the phone indicates to me that they also spent resources into getting the phone to work really well.

 

[blitzer09x87]

Geeks know how to easily get rid of Touchwiz and non-geeks don't even know the difference. Most iPhone users I can see here on the train have their iPhone 5 in cheap plastic cases, so much for premium material.

We got 30 staff and all need phones. Our policy is that each individual can choose their phone after probation.

Out of 30 we got 21!! S3/S4s, two iPhone 5 (one is even a private one and he didn't want a new one), two HTC one, 3 Nokias and two Blackberries.

Plastic and TW is clearly not an issue in our company.

if the htc one didn't had metal body, the number of s4/s4 brought would have increased to 23

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Yes.

But still hasnt prevented Samsung from reaching #1.

Based on volume sales, really a one-horse race as is. Samsung surged to #1 by controlling the SoC and clever marketing attack on Apple. I dont think Apple expected it in just 2-3 years and might have been caught by surprise. Clearly Apple stays at a distant 2nd. And 3rd place is multiple vendors fighting for bronze.

The one former market leader Nokia faded back into the "others" section. Had they went tried Android, who knows? I agree with you. The tides could turn quickly. Nokia basically lost like 25% of its marketshare in 3 years.

you're talking as if i'm an iphone fanboy or anti-samsung, dude i also love samsung, it's my favorite manufacturer, i had the s2, s3, note2 and now i'm waiting for the note 3. samsung has the best phones, but not perfect phones and all i'm saying is that they should improve to produce perfect phones