Samsung tv commercial takes aim at Apple

Samsung tv commercial takes aim at Apple

This is off topic, but I wanted to share..

Have you seen the new Samsung commercial? 

I LOVE this commercial.

I have 4 complaints / frustrations about Apple (below), and this commercial hits squarely on two of them:

1.) Proprietary and Restrictive - Apple keeps just about everything "in house", making it difficult or impossible to use their products and/or share (your own) data files with your non-apple machines and devices.

2.) Marketing - I've always hated the marketing tactic where a person/company touts a specific feature to get attention, as if they're the only one who has that feature, when in fact that feature is commonplace. It may work, because the public doesn't always know the whole story, but it plays on people's ignorance, which I find demeaning and annoying.

• I see Realtors do this routinely: "I can get you a list of foreclosure properties in your area!" Yeah, so what - any Realtor in the area can get the same list.
• Apple has amassed a huge cult following by using this principle, when in fact the overwhelming majority of their "awesome new features" have been found in other products already.

3.) Price - Apple computers are generally 2-3 times more expensive for the same amount of computing power.

4.) Apple Fan Boys - Similar to #2 above. People who have their heads so far up Apple's .. (** ahem **) that they can't see things for what they really are annoy me. Even more annoying is how loud these guys can be.

And to show I'm open minded, I have 3 praises about Apple:

1.) Customer Service. Apple wins - enough said.

2.) iPhone Camera Shutter Lag - It's the fastest phone-camera I've ever seen; it simply works great. When we're out and about, and want to take a quick picture of the kids, we use my wife's iPhone instead of my Droid Incredible. Full disclosure:

• Getting the pictures from my wife's phone to my computer's hard drive, where I process, share, store, and backup all of our pictures, is a pain in the butt.
• Her iPhone is 2 months old; my Droid is 2 years old. I would expect this to be an unfair comparison. We'll have to see if things change when I upgrade my phone this fall..

3.) Special Needs Apps - This may be more about the app-development community than the company itself, but it doesn't matter. My son, who has autism and is non-verbal, can do amazing things with his iPad by using apps which aren't available (and don't have a substitute) on the Android tablets.

Bottom Line

Personally, I'm not an Apple guy, and I loved seeing Samsung throw this in Apple's face.

I have a couple techie-programmer-blogger-type friends who use Apple exclusively. I have other techie-programmer-blogger-type friends who wouldn't touch Apple if you paid them to. And yet these guys all produce top quality content and can do just about anything with a computer. I don't think either one is "better" - you just have a preference or a need for one over the other. (I prefer Windows computers and Android devices.)

My household of 4 is currently home to 6 Apple products, 4 Windows computers, and 2 Android devices. (original iPod, iPod Mini, iPod shuffle, iPod touch, iPhone 4s, iPad 2; ancient desktop computer, old laptop, new laptop, netbook; Droid Incredible phone, Samsung Galaxy 5 Player)

Back to regular programming soon..

-Chris Butterworth

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