Although Samsung didn’t announce anything terribly revolutionary last night at its Samsung Galaxy S4 launch, it has obviously done enough to scare its rivals.
HTC’s Chief Marketing Officer, Benjamin Ho, ripped into the S4 launch – probably to help protect the launch of its own HTC One, which comes out today. His criticisms are pretty valid, but scream sour grapes.
“With a continuation of a plastic body and a larger screen being the most obvious physical change, Samsung’s new Galaxy pales in comparison to the all-aluminium unibody HTC One. This is more of the same,” he said.
“HTC remains the best option for those people looking for the best technology wrapped in premium design. Our customers want something different from the mainstream, who appear to be the target for the Galaxy. Our customers want original cutting-edge technology, mouth-watering design and a premium feel from their mobiles, which is why we created the HTC One.”
This follows yesterday’s lashing by Apple. In a very out-of-character move, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Phil Schiller, made a rather desperate play to accuse Samsung’s software of being out of date and fragmented, and that Android devices don’t ‘work seamlessly together.’
“We are hearing this week that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumoured to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old… Customers will have to wait to get an update.”
An assertion that has since been proven to be false – it will launch with the latest version of Google Android Jellybean, 4.2.2.
Has Samsung got its rivals scared then?