Samsung designer talking about the new GALAXY S6

[Commodus]

It's not that everyone (or even the majority) is distracted by gloss. It's that the broader public doesn't care about specs and expandability nearly as much as hardcore techies want to believe.

On tech forums: "Apple is surely doomed. The iPhone doesn't have 3GB of RAM, a Quad HD display or a microSD slot."

In reality: "This iPhone is easy to use, fast and does everything I need. I'll take it."

That's what Samsung seems to finally be recognizing. Superior specs are all well and good, but only if you back them up with design and software that people can appreciate. The company's previous approach was, well, more like what your stereotypical tech forum goer thinks: bigger numbers are always better, and having a larger feature checklist matters more than having features people actually want to use.

 

[mrochester]

It's not that everyone (or even the majority) is distracted by gloss. It's that the broader public doesn't care about specs and expandability nearly as much as hardcore techies want to believe.

On tech forums: "Apple is surely doomed. The iPhone doesn't have 3GB of RAM, a Quad HD display or a microSD slot."

In reality: "This iPhone is easy to use, fast and does everything I need. I'll take it."

That's what Samsung seems to finally be recognizing. Superior specs are all well and good, but only if you back them up with design and software that people can appreciate. The company's previous approach was, well, more like what your stereotypical tech forum goer thinks: bigger numbers are always better, and having a larger feature checklist matters more than having features people actually want to use.

Agree completely.

 

[DesiPower]

It's not that everyone (or even the majority) is distracted by gloss. It's that the broader public doesn't care about specs and expandability nearly as much as hardcore techies want to believe.

On tech forums: "Apple is surely doomed. The iPhone doesn't have 3GB of RAM, a Quad HD display or a microSD slot."

In reality: "This iPhone is easy to use, fast and does everything I need. I'll take it."

That's what Samsung seems to finally be recognizing. Superior specs are all well and good, but only if you back them up with design and software that people can appreciate. The company's previous approach was, well, more like what your stereotypical tech forum goer thinks: bigger numbers are always better, and having a larger feature checklist matters more than having features people actually want to use.

I agree with you completely, BUT, by taking away the ability to expand storage and replace battery, they are alienating "some" of their customer base for sure. True, very few people care about superior hardware specs, but they doing it anyways, that please the techie community by giving the best hardware but then they take away the battery and SD card, that pisses the techies. So they spend money on superior hardware but then piss of the very people who actually care for it, does not make sense to me.

If they made a phone with inferior hardware but loaded it with all sorts of bells and whistles that catered to Apple type users, THEN took away away the storage and battery then I could understand, what they are doing now does not make sense to me. They are rapidly loosing market share to cheaper handset makers, and then they go ahead and alienate a subset of their users, that marketing strategy is out of my comprehension.

 

[mrochester]

I agree with you completely, BUT, by taking away the ability to expand storage and replace battery, they are alienating "some" of their customer base for sure. True, very few people care about superior hardware specs, but they doing it anyways, that please the techie community by giving the best hardware but then they take away the battery and SD card, that pisses the techies. So they spend money on superior hardware but then piss of the very people who actually care for it, does not make sense to me.

If they made a phone with inferior hardware but loaded it with all sorts of bells and whistles that catered to Apple type users, THEN took away away the storage and battery then I could understand, what they are doing now does not make sense to me. They are rapidly loosing market share to cheaper handset makers, and then they go ahead and alienate a subset of their users, that marketing strategy is out of my comprehension.

Personally I don't think wanting removable batteries and SD cards and blazing specs is related to being a 'techy'. I'm a techy through and through and I value software optimisation, design, user experience and hardware and software integration more than how many GBs or processor cores a device has. Adding RAM and faster processors with more cores is predictable and boring. What you do with the power available is more interesting to me.

Making devices for people who want more RAM and processor cores is a really bad idea if you ask me. Those sort of people aren't 'techies', they're just spec warriors who think that bigger numbers makes better devices.

 

[ChronoReverse]

On the other hand, 1GB of RAM has a real life implication for people with iPhones who open multiple tabs with today's more complex websites. It's a relatively small inconvenience but still a real one for tabs to reload.

I do agree the having more for the sake of having more is silly though.

 

[mrochester]

On the other hand, 1GB of RAM has a real life implication for people with iPhones who open multiple tabs with today's more complex websites. It's a relatively small inconvenience but still a real one for tabs to reload.

I do agree the having more for the sake of having more is silly though.

Agreed, luckily I rarely see it. It's still a trade off I'm willing to make to not have to live with Android.

 

[jacktesterson]

Agreed, luckily I rarely see it. It's still a trade off I'm willing to make to not have to live with Android.

lol.

 

[Commodus]

I agree with you completely, BUT, by taking away the ability to expand storage and replace battery, they are alienating "some" of their customer base for sure. True, very few people care about superior hardware specs, but they doing it anyways, that please the techie community by giving the best hardware but then they take away the battery and SD card, that pisses the techies. So they spend money on superior hardware but then piss of the very people who actually care for it, does not make sense to me.

If they made a phone with inferior hardware but loaded it with all sorts of bells and whistles that catered to Apple type users, THEN took away away the storage and battery then I could understand, what they are doing now does not make sense to me. They are rapidly loosing market share to cheaper handset makers, and then they go ahead and alienate a subset of their users, that marketing strategy is out of my comprehension.

It's a gamble for Samsung given its previous history, but it could pay off. Look at it this way: Apple's strategy is to use technology as a means to an end, a way of solving common problems rather than lording a marketing advantage over rivals. The iPhone uses a cutting-edge processor because it allows for things like advanced health tracking and super-steady video recording. The Galaxy S6 is doing the same -- it's a bet that catering more to the casual user will lead to more sales than pandering to the hardcore crowd.

The GS6's processor and display promise to improve your photos, videos and the interface itself. And there are less performance-driven things like built-in wireless charging, a fingerprint reader that actually works properly and mobile payments -- those last two ideas were in response to Apple, but they're still nice. Oh, and there's finally a real chance that you can buy a Galaxy S with more than 32GB of built-in storage (heck, even 32GB has been rare) without tracking down an import.

 

[Rakehellion]

Ugh. Yours are some of the absolute worst "arguments" ever. Try logic.

Nothing prevents a phone with a removable battery from using a stupid battery pack also- I just don't need one. A quick swap, and I'm at 100%, no stupid external nonsense hanging off my phone or waiting to recharge it.

"B-but what if you forgot to charge your external blaargh bad logic argument blah de blah..."

Gee, I sure wish I had to tether my DSLR, flashlight, and every other type of mobile electronic device, rather than simply swap out a battery. Makes so much sense.

I don't have to wait for my phone to recharge because 90% of the day my phone isn't in my hand. Also, I can charge the battery before it dies, any time I want. I think carrying a pocketful of charged batteries is just silly.

But to each his own.

 

[DesiPower]

On the bright side, its seems, they are going to let you uninstall all the bloatware. That's a BIG plus in my book. I just have how much crap they ship their stuff with. Samsung and ASUS are the worst when it comes to shipping their hardware with bloatware.

linky