We are just one day away from the official reveal of the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S IV smartphone. While much of what's inside the phone has been leaked already to the internet, it's still promises to be a big media circus when Samsung reveals the phone to the public on Thursday at a New York City media event.
The Galaxy S series of smartphones have been huge sellers for Samsung and have lead the way in Android smartphone shipments. Today, Apple's senior vice president of world-wide marketing Phil Schiller decided to try to take Samsung and the Android OS down a notch in a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, just days after he tweeted that smartphone users should "be safe out there", and linking to a report highlighting the prevalence of malware on Android.
Schiller claimed that Apple's own data showed that in the fourth quarter of 2012, four times as many Android phone owners decided to switch to Apple's iPhone rather than the other way around. Schiller also brought up the same old claims that the fragmentation of Android phones in the marketplace was in fact hurting the OS.
"Oh, snap ... Schiller just got real!"
Apple naturally still sees its iPhone experience as superior, with Schiller claiming, "Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn't as good as an iPhone." While it's true that there are all sort of price points of Android phones, along with numberous different versions of the OS, the article also points out that in 2012, Gartner said sales of Android-based smartphones took up 66.4 percent of all smartphones worldwide, compared to 19.1 percent for Apple's iPhone family.
The fact that Schiller is taking the fight to Samsung and Android could be a hint that Apple is seriously concerned that sales of the Galaxy S IV may eat into iPhone sales. This may not be the last such comment from an Apple executive on this matter.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Man excited image via Shutterstock
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