Samsung takes cue from Apple, unifies US branding of Galaxy S III
Previous Galaxy smartphones had different brand names at different U.S. carriers that potentially confused consumers, prompting Samsung to brand its latest flagship smartphone as just the Galaxy S III at all four major U.S. wireless providers.
Samsung's first Galaxy S was known as the Samsung Fascinate at Verizon, the Captivate on AT&T, the Epic 4G on Sprint, and the Vibrant with T-Mobile. Similarly, the Galaxy S II was branded as the Skyrocket at AT&T, the Epic 4G Touch at Sprint, and the Titanium at T-Mobile.
That plethora of names may have made the branding too confusing for consumers, and weakened Samsung's ability to compete with Apple's flagship iPhone 4S smartphone. As a result, executives with Samsung this week have emphasized the fact that the Galaxy S III will feature the same name at all four national wireless carriers in the U.S., according to The Wall Street Journal.
Unique names for smartphones have been driven by carriers, who want to differentiate their offerings to generate interest in their own brand. But Apple has loosened the grip carriers have on smartphone makers by using the same iPhone branding at all carriers, and also handling most of its own advertising for its smartphone.
"Now Samsung is trying to follow the Apple playbook, and getting the carriers to come along," authors Evan Ramstad and Anton Troianovski wrote. By having one consistent brand in the U.S., Samsung will be able to focus its advertising strategy on a single product, and differentiate itself from other Android handsets.
Despite the fact that the Galaxy S III will be known by the same name at all four major U.S. carriers, Samsung will still customize the software on each phone for the respective carriers. That's one area where Apple has never caved in to carriers' demands, refusing to preinstall what some users deride to as "junkware" on the iPhone.
Samsung has yet to announce a launch date for the Galaxy S III in the U.S., but it will debut as early as this month for $199 with a two-year contract. It will be available on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, as well as U.S. Cellular.
Samsung unveiled the quad-core Galaxy S III earlier this month. It features a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED screen, a 1.4-gigahertz processor, one gigabyte of RAM, and available capacities of 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes.
The Galaxy S III launched in 28 countries across Europe and the Middle East last week, competing head-to-head with Apple's iPhone 4S. Apple is expected to respond with its next-generation iPhone this fall, a year after the launch of the iPhone 4S.
Samsung's first Galaxy S was known as the Samsung Fascinate at Verizon, the Captivate on AT&T, the Epic 4G on Sprint, and the Vibrant with T-Mobile. Similarly, the Galaxy S II was branded as the Skyrocket at AT&T, the Epic 4G Touch at Sprint, and the Titanium at T-Mobile.
That plethora of names may have made the branding too confusing for consumers, and weakened Samsung's ability to compete with Apple's flagship iPhone 4S smartphone. As a result, executives with Samsung this week have emphasized the fact that the Galaxy S III will feature the same name at all four national wireless carriers in the U.S., according to The Wall Street Journal.
Unique names for smartphones have been driven by carriers, who want to differentiate their offerings to generate interest in their own brand. But Apple has loosened the grip carriers have on smartphone makers by using the same iPhone branding at all carriers, and also handling most of its own advertising for its smartphone.
"Now Samsung is trying to follow the Apple playbook, and getting the carriers to come along," authors Evan Ramstad and Anton Troianovski wrote. By having one consistent brand in the U.S., Samsung will be able to focus its advertising strategy on a single product, and differentiate itself from other Android handsets.
Despite the fact that the Galaxy S III will be known by the same name at all four major U.S. carriers, Samsung will still customize the software on each phone for the respective carriers. That's one area where Apple has never caved in to carriers' demands, refusing to preinstall what some users deride to as "junkware" on the iPhone.
Samsung has yet to announce a launch date for the Galaxy S III in the U.S., but it will debut as early as this month for $199 with a two-year contract. It will be available on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, as well as U.S. Cellular.
Samsung unveiled the quad-core Galaxy S III earlier this month. It features a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED screen, a 1.4-gigahertz processor, one gigabyte of RAM, and available capacities of 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes.
The Galaxy S III launched in 28 countries across Europe and the Middle East last week, competing head-to-head with Apple's iPhone 4S. Apple is expected to respond with its next-generation iPhone this fall, a year after the launch of the iPhone 4S.
Comments
Carriers must have realized that they will sell more phones under the Samsung Galaxy brand than under their own idiosyncratic brands.
Let's hope that with Samsung getting more brand recognition they will gain some self esteem and will imitate Apple less.
Quote:
Apple is expected to respond with its next-generation iPhone this fall, a year after the launch of the iPhone 4S.
Um... Apple doesn't respond, they just come out with hardware/software when they deem it is ready. I don't see how you can see this as a response to the Galaxy S III. Apple is the trend setter here and is not in the "trying to catch up to the trend setters" group. I'm probably just nit picking, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrDoppio
Carriers must have realized that they will sell more phones under the Samsung Galaxy brand than under their own idiosyncratic brands.
Let's hope that with Samsung getting more brand recognition they will gain some self esteem and will imitate Apple less.
and trolls like you will disappear? i mean, all of your posts are hilarious.
about the galaxy S3..
sounds like an awesome phone. my problem with it is the brand power of the "galaxy" name. i really believe that no one would change a 4s or the coming iPhone for this one, but all geeks and irrational android fans (basically all of those that prefer "top" android phones to iPhones) will buy this one. it's a "hype" phone.
it is bad for awesome phones that are as good or better than this one, like the oneX, the upcoming xperia line, etc.
There is nothing this company will not copy
Let me just re-iterate how ugly this phone is. You may say beauty if subjective, I say this is a general consensus here
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrDoppio
Carriers must have realized that they will sell more phones under the Samsung Galaxy brand than under their own idiosyncratic brands.
Let's hope that with Samsung getting more brand recognition they will gain some self esteem and will imitate Apple less.
Buy now copying Apple's branding policy they will become more confident and copy Apple less? You may have that backwards.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kerryb
Buy now copying Apple's branding policy they will become more confident and copy Apple less? You may have that backwards.
I don't think they copy Apple's branding policy. I understand that is the spin Ai wants to give to the story, but I don't want to be dragged into stupid arguments.
Just speculating here, alternative interpretations are most welcome: Samsung wants to sell as many phones as possible. Understandably, they would want to do so under a strong Samsung brand. If they used to sell their phones under a plethora of names until not long ago, they must have felt that their brand wasn't strong enough, so they let the carriers put their stamp onto the phones. I believe that there has been a shift in power and now Samsung has the confidence to market the device as a Samsung phone, not as a Verizon or AT&T phone manufactured by Samsung.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Oak
There is nothing this company will not copy
Let me just re-iterate how ugly this phone is. You may say beauty if subjective, I say this is a general consensus here
"general consensus" is redundant - that's what a consensus is - general agreement.
If you want to cover Android devices, just do it without trying to artificially relating it to Apple. These handset makers put out a new Android 'flagship' practically every month to get the Fandroids to trade in their 'ancient' 3-6 month old device for the latest sci-fi named handset with the latest Google dessert named OS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
Previous Galaxy smartphones had different brand names at different U.S. carriers that potentially confused consumers, prompting Samsung to brand its latest flagship smartphone as just the Galaxy S III at all four major U.S. wireless providers. ...
Sadly, there are still over 20 or so different mobile phones and tablets made by Samsung at any given time that are "Galaxy" something or other. This is one tiny move in the direction of sensibility, but why on earth do they think this is a good strategy to have all the different names/devices in the first place?
I was helping a friend with an Android phone just the other day (LG not Samsung), and it took me 15 minutes to find out exactly what the model was. The person who had it had owned it for half a year and they didn't know what it was either. "The guy at the store told me it was a '99'," was all he knew.
Needless to say this turns something even as basic as finding the user manual for the thing into a nightmare. It's like these companies actively want to screw over their customers or something.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pedromartins
...
it is bad for awesome phones that are as good or better than this one, like the oneX, the upcoming xperia line, etc.
It's just your opinion though on what phones are "as good or better." The Xperia line for instance, that you say is "good" is the shittiest line of Android phones I've encountered so far.
I haven't seen all the Android phones by any means, but I've seen quite a few Xperia's and ever one of them was the worst kind of crap. The users I know that have Xperia's hate them also and wish they hadn't bought them so it isn't just me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markbyrn
…trade in their 'ancient' 3-6 month old device for the latest sci-fi named handset with the latest Google dessert named OS.
You mean running the one from two years ago that the manufacturer will promise to update to this year's version but never does. Or does, two years later when it's now four versions behind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
It's just your opinion though on what phones are "as good or better." The Xperia line for instance, that you say is "good" is the shittiest line of Android phones I've encountered so far.
I haven't seen all the Android phones by any means, but I've seen quite a few Xperia's and ever one of them was the worst kind of crap. The users I know that have Xperia's hate them also and wish they hadn't bought them so it isn't just me.
well, it was just an opinion. i think that the oneX is as good or better than the s3 (even spec wise.)
the new xperia line has (for example) better camera than the s3, audio (???) and it looks so much better... really nice phones.
I have a mini pro from 2010.. it was a nice upgrade from my motorola v550
this phone has cost me 200€. it has to live more 3 years. then, iPhone.
It's either designed by lawyers or inspired by iPhone. Together it doesn't make sense.
Apple could design a phone that deliberately gives it's users brain cancer, and Samsung would still copy the feature, simply because Apple is using it. Then Samsung would say "Hey, uh, public domain, right guys?"
Samsung truly is the "The Asylum" of cell phone manufacturers; the crappy direct-to-dvd movie studio Asylum, that is...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Youarewrong
It's either designed by lawyers or inspired by iPhone. Together it doesn't make sense.
Cool, I get to cite a username as my response!
And then ask in rebuttal, "What makes the two incompatible?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Santoanderson
Samsung truly is the "The Asylum" of cell phone manufacturers; the crappy direct-to-dvd movie studio Asylum, that is...
My father and I are actually currently MST3K-ing many of their movies. In some scenes, the mocking almost stops being fun because of just how terribly they're done.
Maybe we should go to a Best Buy and MST3K Android phones.
Saying that they're taking a cue from Apple is a bit misleading.
They seem to be practicing good marketing principles. Now that they have emerged as the clear non-Apple smartphone leader, they want to take advantage of their brand and create a unified brand. Not only does a single brand reduce their marketing cost, but also adds value to the organization by cross-fertilizing other products.
The next step is to learn that it will likely strengthen their brand further if they have a limited number of very high powered products rather than 10,000 mostly similar products. The plethora of smartphone models on the market is not benefiting anyone - even the consumers end up getting hurt because the confusion makes it less likely that they'll do the research to find the best product and because it drives up the cost.
How hard was it to go into settings->about phone? It's pretty much the same with the iPhone.