Should iPhone Users Jump Ship For The Samsung Galaxy S4?
During the past couple of years, Samsung smartphones have seen an increase in popularity and for good reason as they offered very strong competition to Apple’s iPhone line of smartphones. And we are talking mostly about the Samsung’s flagship series, the Galaxy S line of Android smartphones. Compared to the iPhone 5, that only saw a few upgrades from the previous iteration (the iPhone 4S), the Samsung Galaxy S3 was a very big step up from the Galaxy S2 and it enjoyed both critical and commercial success, so much in fact that it was dubbed ‘the iPhone killer’. Things might be similar with the iPhone 5S which is not expected to be a very big step up from the iPhone 5, so many Apple users might jump ship for the Samsung Galaxy S4.
The smartphone market is evolving at a very high speed and innovation drives the market. That is why many iPhone users that want new things may be tempted by the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4. In fact, even Apple’s loyal fans there seem to agree that Samsung is the company that leads when it comes to innovation. And the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the perfect example to illustrate that point: it features a larger screen, a camera with an increased resolution and a large array of features that attract consumers, even from those that were loyal to Apple but don’t have the patience anymore to wait for another big innovation from Apple. The iPhone 5 on the other hand was not very innovative and it screen is outdated for 2013.
Apple supporters might argue that in terms of hardware innovation, Apple was never among the first and that is unlikely to change now. It is true that Apple added 3G to its line of smartphones one year after Android smartphones; not to mention 4G LTE which Apple wasn’t in a hurry to add to its iPhone line. And the list can continue, the newest and hottest feature being NFC (Near Field Communication, a set of standards that initiate a radio connection between two or more smartphones if they are in very close proximity to each other or if they touch together ), a feature that Apple still does not offer in any of its iPhone smartphones. On the other hand, most Android devices come with NFC. So, as we said, Apple was never a leader in hardware innovation; instead the iPhone was successful thanks to its slick aesthetics with a very simple yet sophisticated design, to its intuitive and aesthetically pleasant user interface and last but not least, to its software ecosystem. Apple managed to get all these things right and the all these things weighed more than hardware innovation.
Samsung is a company with a very different philosophy, as they constantly innovate the hardware, always coming up with bigger and better screens, more powerful CPUs, adding features like NFC and keeping pace with the latest network speeds. And now, due to Android growth, Samsung has managed to keep the pace with Apple also in terms of software.
As we already mentioned, Samsung smartphones (especially the Galaxy S line) have seen a wild increase in popularity. The Galaxy line competes directly to Apple’s iPhone and in some areas it is better. It is not just popularity that Samsung is gaining; in a report from Strategy Analytics (a well known market research firm) it is suggested that during Q1 of 2013, Samsung sales increased nine times as fast as Apple sales. Granted, a considerable part of this increase in sales is due to Samsung’s low budget smartphones, however Samsung is readying a new generation of Galaxy smartphones. So does that mean it is time for iPhone users to jump ship for the next generation of Galaxy smartphones? We will try to offer an answer in this article.
Is it time to leave Apple for Samsung?
We should start with the iPhone 5S’ release date. While many rumors placed the iPhone 5S’ release date somewhere during this summer, that release window seems to be very unlikely now and that is because during Apple’s Q1 conference call Tim Cook (CEO at Apple) made some comments that suggest a delay for the Apple iPhone 5S. According to Cook, Apple will release new products this fall. This also ties with recent reports from analysts; according to quite a few analysts, word from component suppliers for Apple’s iPhone is that the iPhone 5S will be released during the September – October time frame.
Apple is known for being very discreet (though a more suitable word would be secretive) when it comes to offering details about its upcoming products, so it is very hard know for sure what features will be included. Our best bet are rumors and guesstimating (of course, based on rumors and reports); this makes it very hard to say with certainty that the iPhone 5S will feature an improved FaceTime camera or that it will not feature NFC.
During the aforementioned conference call, Tim Cook mentioned that Apple will not equip its iPhone with a larger screen, at least not before fixing “significant tradeoffs” that other companies had to make in order to equip their smartphones with larger screens. According to a few analysts Apple will release a minimum of three devices with larger screens, but for now that is only a rumor, especially if you consider the fact the Apple usually does not launch more than a single iPhone design at a time. Another possibility is that an iPhone with a larger screen might not actually be released until 2014.
Given how secretive Apple is and what information (unverified and possibly not very accurate, must be said) we have on the iPhone 5S, the question is how will it look when it will be launched this fall. If we are to extrapolate based on the company’s past iterations of the iPhone, we could assume that hardware wise it won’t be a tremendous step up from the iPhone 5. It will, most likely, be the around the same size as the iPhone 5. As we mentioned above, there is a good chance that the FaceTime camera will see an improvement and that is a very good news for those of you that were expecting a better front facing camera for your iPhone.
Rgearding smartphone cameras, the tech advanced a lot during the past years. If we were to compare the cameras from the HTC one, iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4, we would conclude that the HTC One camera has the poorest performance of the three smartphones and the battle is between the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the iPhone 5. While the Galaxy S4′s camera is suited more for environments with abundent light, the iPhone 5′s camera performed admirably in areas with low light. The HTC One’s camera is not remarkable, but also not an extremely poor camera; in fact there are many users that like the HTC One’s camera more than the Samsung Galaxy S4′s camera since it performs better in conditions of low light and it also takes excellent close ups. Speaking about close ups, the Galaxy S4′s camera performed very poor when taking close ups, especially coupled with low light conditions.
The unsurprising conclusion regarding smartphone cameras would be that each smartphone (the iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One) camera has its own ups and downs and the differences between them are not very high, at least not as high as to transform the camera into a decisive argument when buying a smartphone. There is one thing to note though and that is that the iPhone 5′s camera performs admirably against newer smartphones’ cameras and that might mean that the iPhone 5S might come equipped with an even better camera, which would probably propel it on the top spot when it comes to smartphone cameras.
But let’s gert back to the question of whether or not the time has come to switch from the iPhone to the Android based Samsung Galaxy S4. Not only did the Galaxy S line gain popularity and commercial success, but it has also become a better alternative to the iPhone line. We are all used to Apple releasing one new iDevice and soft upgrade per year; Samsung however has launched two flagship Android devices in the same year. And Google’s Android has seen many important upgrades in the same year, upgrades that made their way to Samsung devices very quickly. Correlated, these things pushed Samsung smartphones a bit futher than Apple’s iPhone.
The trend of small incremental upgrades will probably continue with the iPhone 5S. Nobody expects to see huge hardware improvements and changes. As such, it will probably be a surprise if the iPhone 5S will feature a drasitcally faster processor or hardware to match the tech that will be found in the newer Android devices. However, while not an important player when it comes to cutting edge hardware, Apple has a very big advantage in the form of its iOS ecosystem. So, the question now is: is it worth the jump from the iPhone to the Galaxy S from the point of view of leaving the iOS ecosystem?
The answer is not simple and is relative to each of you. The key here is how much you are invested in the iOS ecosystem, an ecosystem that is very diverse and large, incorporating music, movies and apps. There is a good news though: it has become a bit simpler to make the switch from the iOS ecosystem to the Android one. At least regarding music, things are looking good as you can download the Google Play Manager on your computer and then upload all your music (this includes iTunes music) to the Google Play cloud. Once your music is uploadet, you will be able to access it from any devices that has access to the Internet. This also means that you will be able to download your Google Play cloud music to your Android smartphone to listen while offline. This makes for a very simple transition from the iOS ecosystem to the Android ecosystem.
Google Play is very smooth when it comes to managing your music. You can listen to it (from) anywhere you have access to the Internet and however you want online and offline. The fact that it also works with iTunes means that you will be able to buy music as you normally did on iOS, from iTunes, and sync it with Google Play so you will be able to listen to it from your Android based smartphone, but also on iOS powered iDevices such as iPod, iPad and iPhone. What this means is that when it comes to music, you are not leaving the iOS ecosystem behind if you decide to switch to an Android smartphone; instead you can continue to enjoy it just like before making the switch to Android. This also means that if you will later want to go back to iPhone you will be able to do so in a very smooth way.
The transition from one ecosystem to another in regards to music is not an instant process nor is it a perfect one. But it is simpler than before and it allows you to share your music across ecosystems and listen to it using a wide variety of smartphones. Thus leaving an ecosystem behind is not such a big deal anymore. To summarize, the iPhone 5S most likely won’t be a hardware revolution; instead it will be another incremental upgrade from the iPhone 5 and it is safe to assume that if you were not amazed by the iPhone 5 you will not be amazed by the iPhone 5S so stop waiting for it and get yourself the Samsung Galaxy S4. It is available now and it is an amazing smartphone. Not to mention you will be able to transition your music from the iOS ecosystem to the Android ecosystem so that’s not a reason to hold back anymore.
