The iPhone's biggest rival debuts
Can the Samsung Galaxy S III finally be the first real threat to the iPhone's dominance? Reviewers think so.
Should Apple be worried?
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Reviewers who have used the phone say it's packed with details and has a huge screen. It may not be an iPhone killer -- we have yet to see what Apple (AAPL) will offer in the upcoming iPhone 5 -- but it's got enough to threaten the iPhone's status and dominance.
Samsung will debut the phone this month and next on every major U.S. carrier -- AT&T (T), Sprint (S), Verizon (VZ) and T-Mobile. The price starts at $200 -- with a two-year contract, of course. The fact that everyone has it will be a main advantage. "The Galaxy S III is a solid, capable phone," writes Walt Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal. "But its most important feature may be ubiquity."
Samsung went out on a limb in its decision to give the Galaxy a 4.8-inch screen. There are lots of advantages to a large screen size -- photo and video viewing is great -- but that also means a large body to lug around. "You can't have a big screen without a big body, and this one is more VHS cassette than postage stamp," writes reviewer David Pogue in The New York Times. "It's the old trade-off: A big phone is better when you’re using it, but a small one is better when you’re carrying it."
The phone's designers were still able to make the Galaxy thinner than the iPhone, however.
The phone's software -- the latest version of Android from Google (GOOG) -- is loaded with so many features it will take a user days to figure it all out. You can wake it up just by using your voice. It has a picture-in-picture feature that can run video in a small square while you're doing other things on the phone, reports The Verge. Normal phones turn themselves off after not being used for a while, but this one won't turn off if you're still looking at the screen.
"The Galaxy S III is a technological triumph," writes Vlad Savov on The Verge. "Not at first sight, perhaps, but Samsung has done the overwhelming majority of things right."
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Has anyone realized the sales iPhone 5, or all smart phones for that matter, are going to be far far below expectation because of the new price plans that are coming out? Verizon customers are now buying up the 4s before the dead line so they can keep their current plan. Once these plans are in place people will be extremely reluctant to upgrade their phone. I'm with ATT and I will not be getting the iPhone 5 if I can't keep my current pricng plan including the $30 unlimited data.
What people don't understand is once a product has become as popular as apple prodcuts have, there is no dethroning it untill you completely reinvinte the market.
Look at Coke. Pepsi actually won taste tests over coke but it's still second to Coke because Coke has already established itself as the top soda beverage and has nostalgia.
The same with car brands like Mercedes and BMW.
There is no iphone killer and never will be as long as it's a phone in the sense of a hand held device.
For someone to knock off the iphone the pesonal communication device has to be reinvented.
If you want a 4.8" screen, this is a great phone, but if you want something smaller there are other phones that are better. As to whether the iphone is better than a droid is a combination of the "fanboi" issue with personal preference. Face it, brand loyalty is not something you can measure with technical specs. Apple has a strong brand loyalty and regardless of the fact that there are phones out there that are superior in every technical spec, it will not change that brand loyalty. Apple is not a strong company because they build a superior product, they are a strong company because they have strong marketing.
If you looked purely at specs, there have been dozens of "iphone killers" over the years, dozens of "ipod killers" and dozens of "macbook" killers. But in the end it isn't about product superiority, it is about sales. And in terms of sales, the iphone is king. To dethrone the king will take Apple coming out with crappy products for at least 2 generations, if not 3 or 4, which will eventually override the brand loyalty and the marketing spin.
Apple comes out with crap products once in a while but does a good job of spinning it and is really good at following up with a better product to reinstate the faith of their fans. The iphone 4 was pretty bad - touch it wrong and you lost signal.. what good is a phone that can't connect to the internet if you didn't hold it flat in your hand or get a rubber case for it? But they spun it well, came out with a fix that didn't help but made the signal bars LOOK better, and then replaced it with a new phone that had all the positives of the last without most of the negatives, and a few new features to boot. Then they marketed the hell out of the new features and everyone forgot that you couldn't make a call without wearing a glove with the last phone.
Samsung has a good product though, and is doing a good job marketing their product. If they keep it up, they could convince a lot of loyal apple fans to take a serious look at an alternative and bring about a change in the market.
Someone posted the only thing the iphone has is the retina display, Samsung makes that for Apple as well as other parts. Because of the lawsuit the iphone 5 will be the same phone as previous with little tweaks here and there. The S3 was suppose to be edge to edge screen, which is what the lawsuit is about. Samsung developed it, and Apple wanted it and Samsung said no so Apple sued claimng it was their idea first even though Samsung made it first and won't make it for Aplle. The lawsuit is keeping Sammy from putting it out, so hopefully it will end soon and the S4 gets its, then it's bye bye iphone.
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