Apple's dirty dozen: What it's really saying about Galaxy S4
The Samsung Galaxy S4 launched last week amid great hype about its features as compared to an iPhone 5. In response, Apple rolled out its publicity machine, which produced TV ads in the last few weeks showing off the iPhone and features, and on its "Why iPhone" page, gave 12 reasons why: "There's iPhone. Then there's everything else." Of course, Apple never mentions its rival. And some analysts already agree with Apple.
Liam Tung has the full story.
Apple's iPhone has received eight straight JD Power and Associates awards for customer satisfaction. Apple wants awards to show how well the iPhone has fared in contrast to the Galaxy 4S, which doesn't even exist yet. It is expected to be released in April.
Apple touts the iPhone's design, calling its engineering: "A level of precision you'd expect from a finely crafted watch, not a smartphone." In contrast, Samsung's is glued to plastic at a time when others, such as HTC with its latest One device, have turned to full metal casing.
Next is Apple's highly touted Retina Display. For the Galaxy 4S, Samsung introduced a 5-inch screen with 1080p resolution.
Apple says its iPhone will give 8 hours of battery life for LTE browsing and talk (who does that any more?), and 10 hours for video watching. Samsung touts the S4's 2,600mAh removeable battery, but it has a larger screen and even more features to compromise performance. Smart Stay and S Voice both drain the battery more quickly.
Apple claims its A6 chip at 1.3 GHz is powerful, but it won't sacrifice speed for battery life. The S4 will have an octo-core clocked at 1.6GHz or a quad-core 1.9GHz.
With Apple's wireless and LTE, the iPhone is said to support more networks all over the world to "connect at blazing-fast speeds, no matter where you are". The Galaxy 4S promised global 4G LTE networks support, along with super-fast download speeds.
The iPhone 5 has an 8-megapixel camera, but Apple says is the most popular camera that lets anyone take good photos. It says pixels aren't everything. Samsung is, of course, saying the opposite. Their camera sports 13-megapixels, and can record simultaneously in conjunction with the front-facing 2-megapixel sensor.
It's iTunes with 800,000 apps, which Galaxy S4 can't match.
Apple's got its iOS 6 and the Apple core, along with its many features and apps. It touts the speed of upgrades, while Samsung has Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, the most up-to-date version of Android where updates aren't as immediate.
Almost everybody knows Apple's all-purpose Siri, while Samsung introduced its S Galaxy S Voice Drive, which is designed for cars.
Apple's got its Apple Store for support, and has pride in its phone support as it claims to win this category.
Apple has its iCloud, which it says it keeps you: "up to date everywhere you go. All you have to do is nothing." Meanwhile, Samsung has HomeSync for your personal cloud.
Of course, you didn't see Samsung's other features that Apple can't match, such as its eye-tracking sensor and its Air View gestures, which you can use without touching the screen.