Samsung still obsessed with Apple, screen quantity over quality

July 23, 2014

Samsung is continuing to use their expensive commercial time to promote Apple products, this time focusing on the difference in screen size between the 5.1-inch display of the Galaxy S5 versus the 4-inch display of the iPhone 5s and, what's more, the 4.7- and 5.5-inch displays rumored to be coming with the iPhone 6 this fall.

In its 30-second ad, Samsung shows two friends in a bar, one of whom is eagerly awaiting the next, rumored to be larger sized, iPhone 6. The other points out to him that he doesn't have to wait, large size phones are already here, thanks to Samsung. In addition to teasing Apple's next big thing, and encouraging everyone watching to wait and see what the fall might bring, it's interesting to note that every size phone is already here, thanks to Samsung.

Samsung Android device screens: - 33 sizes - 9 resolutions - 42 densities - 7 aspect ratios - Too big to tweet

https://t.co/KGYeZopvXk

— Derek Kessler (@dkdsgn)

June 14, 2014

And this, once again, highlights important differences between the two companies. Not just that Samsung shows off Apple products in their ads and Apple sticks to showing off their own products, or that Samsung uses plastic where Apple uses aluminum, or that Samsung uses SAMOLED where Apple prefer LED, or that Samsung has a bifurcated software experience, split between Android and TouchWiz and Apple has a coherent one, all iOS, all the time, but at their cores.

Samsung, like everyone's favorite crazy uncle, believes in trying everything and anything, throwing it all at the wall in hopes that something sticks. It doesn't matter if any one of those products is substandard or marginal, if things like PenTile pixel arrangements downgrade screen quality or some features exist only in their own apps and not Google's, preventing people from having a consistent experiences.

Apple, by contrast, stays focused. They take their time. They weren't first to phones or tablets or TV boxes, and they weren't first to phablets. They believe in quality over quantity. They had 3.5-inch phones for 5-generations, the 4-inch phones for 2. They went to Retina display, in-pane switching, 16:9 aspect ratio, and in-cell display. They didn't make many more screens, they made far better screens.

And according to the latest numbers, the iPhone 5s still outsells the Galaxy S5.

Many people simply don't want a bigger phone. They want something that easily fits in their hand or pocket or purse. For those who do, however, they currently have to choose between iOS on a 4-inch device or not-iOS on a bigger device. Imagine what will happen this fall, when they can get iOS on a bigger phone.

If history is any indicator, what Samsung's really going to need to make bigger is their ad budget. And better too. Way better.