by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) It has never been more difficult to decide which is the best smartphone of the year. This year, every phone maker seems to have caught up in one area or another — the 2013 Smartphone of the Year is something like a 10-way tussle. We look at the high-end contenders, which typically cost R8 000 upward.
Tag archives: Samsung Galaxy S4
Media Future: Samsung’s long shadow over Apple
Lurking behind Apple’s share-price woes is the manner in which the Samsung Galaxy S4 further eclipses the iPhone 5, writes Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee).
This past week, when Apple reported its first drop in profit growth in a decade, much was made of the fact that the market was punishing it unduly harshly. Descending from a $700 high in September 2012 to a bumpy ride along a $400 floor in April 2013, it is hard to believe it’s the same Apple.
Yet, the company reported record iPad sales, up to 19,5-million in the second quarter of last year, from 11,8-million for the equivalent period last year. iPhone sales were also not too shabby, up from 35,1-million to 37,4-million. Analysts were unanimous that Apple was being punished because its pace of innovation had slowed, and there were no killer products on the horizon to follow in the market-shfting footsteps of the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
There is a more fundamental force at work, however, and that is called competition. When Steve Jobs presided over the launch of the iPhone 4 in 2010, Apple was so far ahead of other manufacturers, its fans could not even countenance the idea of anyone catching up.
Just two years later, when it launched the iPhone 5, it was fighting a rearguard action against the new front-runner. Samsung had released its groundbreaking Galaxy S3 in May 2012, giving it a six-month head start over the new iPhone. And even then, Apple produced a device that did not match up to the S3.
Media Future: The coming to SA of the Big 4 flagship phones
Four major new phones are about to be released in South Africa. Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) highlights the key differentiators in the devices from Samsung, Sony, HTC and BlackBerry.
By the end of this month, South Africans will have the most dazzling choice of high-end flagship phones yet seen in this country. The launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 on April 25 will be the most high-profile, but it won’t be the only game in town.
And there will be very few surprises. The phones in question have all been officially announced, and their features trumpeted at length.
The big new contendors, along with the S4, are the Sony Xperia Z, the HTC One and the BlackBerry Q10. Time spent with prototypes or release versions of each of these does not, unfortunately, translate into being spoilt for choice; rather, it raises the bar on the confusion factor.
Samsung sales figures for Africa shows strong appetite for top-of-the-range phones
by Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) Thursday night will see one of the biggest product launches in the history of the technology. Samsung’s new flagship phone, expected to be called the Samsung Galaxy S4, has already been declared the new all-things-to-all-people smartphone, further dethroning the faltering Apple iPhone 5 even before the S4 is unveiled.
It’s easy to see why so much is expected of it: the current top-of-the-pile, the Galaxy S III, was declared by many (including this column) the 2012 phone of the year. Its successor, due out as much as six months before the next iPhone, will rule the roost by default.
As a result, many will see the phone market as a war between the S4 and the iPhone 5, with the Sony Xperia Z and BlackBerry Z10 scrapping with each other for the number three position, the Nokia Lumia 920 fighting for the scraps, and the Huawei Ascend P2 as the dark horse.
But that is only the top end of the market, where the flagship phones play. While these phones also represent the highest profits on phones, and shape market perceptions, to take them as the whole would be a massive misreading of the cellphone market.
For one thing, the Galaxy S III remains, for now, the most popular high-end phone in the world, as well as in South Africa. By mid-January, it had sold 40-million units, making it Samsung’s best-selling phone yet. Now, for the first time, sales figures for South Africa and the rest of Africa have been revealed.