The world of smartphones is quite green still and two companies come to mind when it comes to smart phones. As of now, they are Apple and Samsung. They are overwhelmingly dominant when it comes to smart devices. Apple has dominated the market with not only its devices (iphone, ipad, ipod) but also its own software (ios).
Samsung was relatively late to the game. However, it has quickly grab a hold of the smart phone market through its Galaxy series and utilizes the Android platform. Android has been very quick to grow and has been the dominant OS for the majority of the world.
Samsung and Apple are the two companies that are largely successful in sales of their flagship products. Samsung sold 63.5 million units of the S4 since its launch last April and Apple sold 51 million Iphones in the December quarter. The bad news for Samsung is that they sold 65.6 million units of the predecessor, the Galaxy S3. The Galaxy S series has been a huge hit for Samsung and many were expecting the a miraculous device because the S series version has been a rather significant upgrade from its predecessor.
For example, I upgraded from my first smart phone. It was the Galaxy Fascinate (Verizon's version of the original Galaxy S) and it was a decent device. However, it was buggy and had major lag issues. Still, as my first smart device, I was relatively satisfied with my dependable S device. Then, it was time for an upgrade. I was waiting on the Galaxy Note2 as it launched. However, I didn't have the luxury of waiting two weeks as it was back ordered due to high demand. Therefore, I purchased the Galaxy S3. This was a major upgrade and part of the reason why I am such a big Samsung fan. This device was an upgrade on every level.
The screen quality was much better, screen size was much bigger, the OS was much more fluid, there were cool software tweaks that were very useful, the speed of the phone's computer chips were much more powerful, it was intuitive to use, and the speed of 4G LTE was blazing fast compared to my initial 3G phone.
Last year's launch of the Galaxy S4 started off as a success as Samsung had record sales. The launching event was also very professionally executed, albeit cheesy. The usefulness of the device was displayed throughout the event and it was done creatively in my opinion.
Still, the software upgrades and Samsung added apps were not enough for the consumers to continue raving over the phone. It was as good as the S3 and even better. However, the expectation of the consumers exceeded the upgrade that the S4 offered over the S3. One can say that the hype for the S4 was what killed it. I'm being overly dramatic here.
So we are left with the S5 launching event in a couple days and there is, indeed, hype. However, I believe people are more grounded now and expect a significant upgrade but not a miracle phone.
It will be very interesting to see how the Galaxy S5 shapes up. What are your thoughts? What interested you in regards to the Galaxy S series?
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