Snobbery today: 'The difference between Apple and Samsung industrial design'

[poofyhairguy]

What you would consider a success? The GS6/Edge outselling the iPhone 6/6+ for the quarter?

No, just a media sentiment that Samsung is back.

 

[richierich1212]

That's funny, my iPad Air 2's power button isn't aligned with the top headphone jack.

 

[tsupersonic]

It was always going to be SOMETHING. iFans weren't just going to roll over and admit defeat.

There are fanboys on both camps, and I just find them to be highly annoying. I mean are we still having the iPhone vs. Android debate to this day? Life is too short for this shit, pick a phone and move on. BTW, when have we made these companies our overlords? We shouldn't praise these companies!

I'm platform neutral, use an iPhone 6/Nexus 5, and I just find this to be flat out ridiculous...It's nice that Apple pays attention to the small details, but at the end of the day, who cares if things aren't aligned, as long as the phone works!

 

[Artdeco]

No, just a media sentiment that Samsung is back.

SEOUL-- Samsung Electronics Co. reported a 39% drop in net profit Wednesday, marking its fourth straight quarter of declines for the first three months of this year on slowing smartphone sales.

The South Korean technology company said in a regulatory filing net profit for the January-March period slid to 4.6 trillion won ($4.3 billion) from 7.6 trillion won a year ago, as consumers continued to flock to other smartphone options like Apple Inc.'s new iPhones and more affordable phones from Chinese brands like Xiaomi Corp.

The net figure fell slightly short of market expectations. A Dow Jones survey of eight analysts showed net profit is likely to fall 30% year-over-year to 5.3 trillion won.

Operating profit fell 29.6% to 6 trillion won from 8.5 trillion won in the year-ago period with profit margins at the company's key mobile unit sliding to 10.6% from 19.8%.

Total revenue slipped 12% to 47.1 trillion won, in line with estimates provided by Samsung earlier this month.

Local analysts estimate Samsung to have shipped 82 million smartphones in the March quarter. The figure represents a drop from 89 million units shipped during the same period a year ago, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

The company didn't disclose shipment figures.

Apple, meanwhile, said this week it sold 61.2 million iPhones in the three months ended March, up 40% from the year-earlier period. Many of those sales came in emerging markets including China, dialing up a 33% increase in net profit at $13.6 billion for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.

Sales of Samsung's latest flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone and its curved-screen variant, the Galaxy S6 Edge, kicked off globally in April 10. The pair of new Galaxy phones could account for as much as a quarter of total smartphone unit sales in the second quarter, lifting margins back into double-digit percentages, analysts say.

Write to Min-Jeong Lee at min-jeong.lee@wsj.com


They're not back.

 

[MongGrel]

Alignment is for Engineers, If you're Artsy ever phone should look out of line like a Dali painting

 

[shabby]

Is it just me, or is the iPhone's camera lense terribly off center?

Not only that, its sticking out!

 

[poofyhairguy]

SEOUL-- Samsung Electronics Co. reported a 39% drop in net profit Wednesday, marking its fourth straight quarter of declines for the first three months of this year on slowing smartphone sales.

The South Korean technology company said in a regulatory filing net profit for the January-March period slid to 4.6 trillion won ($4.3 billion) from 7.6 trillion won a year ago, as consumers continued to flock to other smartphone options like Apple Inc.'s new iPhones and more affordable phones from Chinese brands like Xiaomi Corp.

The net figure fell slightly short of market expectations. A Dow Jones survey of eight analysts showed net profit is likely to fall 30% year-over-year to 5.3 trillion won.

Operating profit fell 29.6% to 6 trillion won from 8.5 trillion won in the year-ago period with profit margins at the company's key mobile unit sliding to 10.6% from 19.8%.

Total revenue slipped 12% to 47.1 trillion won, in line with estimates provided by Samsung earlier this month.

Local analysts estimate Samsung to have shipped 82 million smartphones in the March quarter. The figure represents a drop from 89 million units shipped during the same period a year ago, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

The company didn't disclose shipment figures.

Apple, meanwhile, said this week it sold 61.2 million iPhones in the three months ended March, up 40% from the year-earlier period. Many of those sales came in emerging markets including China, dialing up a 33% increase in net profit at $13.6 billion for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.

Sales of Samsung's latest flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone and its curved-screen variant, the Galaxy S6 Edge, kicked off globally in April 10. The pair of new Galaxy phones could account for as much as a quarter of total smartphone unit sales in the second quarter, lifting margins back into double-digit percentages, analysts say.

Write to Min-Jeong Lee at min-jeong.lee@wsj.com


They're not back.

Let's see Q2 numbers.

 

[poofyhairguy]

There are fanboys on both camps, and I just find them to be highly annoying. I mean are we still having the iPhone vs. Android debate to this day? Life is too short for this shit, pick a phone and move on. BTW, when have we made these companies our overlords? We shouldn't praise these companies!

I'm platform neutral, use an iPhone 6/Nexus 5, and I just find this to be flat out ridiculous...It's nice that Apple pays attention to the small details, but at the end of the day, who cares if things aren't aligned, as long as the phone works!

I can't disagree with any of that.

 

[Subyman]

Not only that, its sticking out!

A lot of people actually got mad about that

 

[dawheat]

Let's see Q2 numbers.

Not sure what the point of his post was in a thread about industrial design in the S6 and posting numbers pre-S6. The whole point of the phone is to put Samsung back on the right path.

 

[Commodus]

The Q1 results aren't that surprising, really -- the GS6 was only announced during that quarter, it didn't ship until the second quarter. Samsung had to hawk the GS5 at the worst possible time, at the end of its lifecycle and after a holiday. Moreover, the Note 4 was no longer shiny new, so its sales were inevitably going to cool off as well.

The real litmus test is Q2. If Samsung's year-over-year profits are still down significantly after the GS6 launch... well, clearly an improved flagship wasn't enough. Honestly don't know either way at this stage.

 

[shabby]

A lot of people actually got mad about that

Nevermind, it doesn't actually stick out after all!

 

[TuxDave]

To get buttons and ports aligned will likely mean there is some space wasted internally to do that.

I took the message to be:
(from lowest density to highest density)
A design team that doesn't care about details <-- accuses Samsung of being here
A design team that cares about details but put a special restriction for aesthetics <-- Apple is here
A design team that cares about details and will optimize the crap out of it without regard to aesthetics

 

[Brian Stirling]

Ah yes, the rules of design. As we all know, the best photos are those where the subject is perfectly centered. The Rule of Centeredness, I believe it's called.

OK, this made me laugh -- hard!


Brian

 

[Artdeco]

Not sure what the point of his post was in a thread about industrial design in the S6 and posting numbers pre-S6. The whole point of the phone is to put Samsung back on the right path.

Samsungs strategy isn't a given, I'm not saying they're doomed or even "in trouble", but I don't see a massive change in Samsung's fortunes from 1 flagship device (or two). There's still pressure from the top and the bottom of the sector. Sprint's already offering a BOGO on the S6.

The aggressive Chinese manufacturers aren't going away, they're getting better, cheaper, and building brand awareness and loyalty.

 

[WelshBloke]

Not only that, its sticking out!

Apple make quite an effort to hide that in their promo photos.

 

[purbeast0]

a phone being "better" than another is 100% subjective.

he likes the iphone better.

get over it.

 

[soccerballtux]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it extremely funny that he's complaining about the buttons and holes on a phone not being in a perfect line (which is ridiculous because they simply do not need to be) while holding those phones with hands that look like they recently went through a meat grinder? I mean, those cuticles and nails are so out of alignment that I can't believe anything that he says anywhere else in the article.

that's a legitimate point. if he really cared, he would be managing himself better

 

[dawheat]

Samsungs strategy isn't a given, I'm not saying they're doomed or even "in trouble", but I don't see a massive change in Samsung's fortunes from 1 flagship device (or two). There's still pressure from the top and the bottom of the sector. Sprint's already offering a BOGO on the S6.

The aggressive Chinese manufacturers aren't going away, they're getting better, cheaper, and building brand awareness and loyalty.

I think history disagrees with you. Samsung Mobile fortunes go up and down with flagship sales. The tens of millions of mid and low end phones they sell do help somewhat with economies of scale, but do very little for their bottom line. Nearly all the profit in smartphones is in the high end where you get 65-70% margins.

So the difference of the S6 selling at the high end of expectations (70M) vs. S5 volumes is 10-15 billion in profit for the year, compounded by the high number of internal components.

The S6 will determine for the next year whether Samsung mobile continues to be the majority profit generator for Samsung as in the past, or a minority portion that is increasingly overshadowed by AP, memory, etc.

Sure Samsung Electronics isn't going anywhere as even in a "bad" year like 2014, they still took in over 20 billion in annual profit.

 

[openwheel]

Why would I, as a consumer, want to see high profit for any given product I purchase? Some are boasting high profit as a "good thing". Am I the only one thinking the opposite?

In fact, I'd like the profit margin to be as low as possible. I don't have all my savings invested in one of these companies, so I want the best bang for the buck possible.

 

[touchstone]

Why would I, as a consumer, want to see high profit for any given product I purchase? Some are boasting high profit as a "good thing". Am I the only one thinking the opposite?

In fact, I'd like the profit margin to be as low as possible. I don't have all my savings invested in one of these companies, so I want the best bang for the buck possible.

I think you are confusing commodity goods with luxury goods. You want your farmers living in squalor because it indicates you are paying low prices for your crops, but you don't want your watch makers and chip designers living in squalor. How are they supposed to design chips if they are always thinking about food? It doesn't matter what the farmers think about, so they can be hungry and poor.


So, in short, you want your luxury goods maker to be highly profitable because it indicates the goods you get from them have high value. The same cannot be said for commodities like grain or wheat.

 

[VashHT]

a phone being "better" than another is 100% subjective.

he likes the iphone better.

get over it.

It sounds like you should be agreeing with the OP, the article is stupid because it's trying to prove the iphone is objectively "better" due to ports being lined up. The author should just accept that he likes the iphone due to personal reasons and stop trying to prove the iphone is better.

 

[cronos]

What I think is hilarious about this article is that if there's a douche Fandroid out there with nothing better to do who write a satire about how Apple fans love their device, the article is going to look exactly like this

 

[Anubis]

lol TBH I would have never even noticed any of those things if I had not read this post

 

[Mopetar]

It sounds like you should be agreeing with the OP, the article is stupid because it's trying to prove the iphone is objectively "better" due to ports being lined up. The author should just accept that he likes the iphone due to personal reasons and stop trying to prove the iphone is better.

I don't think there's an "objectively" better claim in there at all. It's merely a case of here's something that matters to me and the iPhone does it better.

You'd be a fool to complain about an article where someone prefers Android because they can install their own ROM and completely customize the experience.

He even outright writes:

Again, I realize this won't matter to some people, and will serve as fodder for jokes for others.

and

That's why it matters to me

What he's saying and what you think he's saying are apparently two different things and you're effectively arguing against a point that the author wasn't making.

The only claim he's really making is that Apple seems to sweat the small stuff more than most other companies and I don't think you'd find many that could disagree with that statement. The company has always been neurotic about details that most people don't care about.

If you don't care, you don't care, but why are some caring so much about not caring?