Samsung caught presenting actors as Galaxy Tab "consumers," fudging thinnest tablet claims - Page 3

i think its a religious thing... the samsung ceo seems to talk about the tv as a religion... and its the center of life, etc. so the tablet is kind of a mini-tv of sorts for them. sick, really.

Definitely NOT winning.
That was just sad.

People should be fired for this for this ridiculous fiasco.

Samsung should stick to doing what it does best... making stuff for other companies.

I let a lot go these days but sorry, that is a pathetic reason for an article.

It's really treating readers with contempt to think they want to be involved in this kind of lowest-common-denominator bottom-feeder pseudo journalism.

Spend more time writing news stories about news and less time with the patronizing sensationalist horse crap.

Yes, the tablet category existed long befor the iPad. Apple got there quite early with a PAD in 1993 (the Newton Message Pad). Does anybody know of any "pads" before that?
Here is my Newton 2000 from 1997, sitting beside my iPad 1.

Hey "firefly," what does it taste like to have your mouth wrapped around the back end of anything and everything pooping out Android?

Will you ever get you fill?

OMG I couldn't breathe for 30 minutes watching it coz I was laughing too hard! XD

Now I know where the "smooth" comment comes from. They can do and they can say anything these days.

The fingerprints all over the tablets when they showed them off were great. And no applause. I think the audience knew these were DOA.

Note that Apple does not decide who to hire when their ads are created. That is done by the ads agency. And, the choice would be solely based on the appeal of the person and how they resonate to the target audience.

I doubt very much that the Ads agency of Apple would make as a pre-requesite in the preliminary screening of talents to sued in the ad: yp ask:

Do you use the Apple product that you are going to have a role in? That would border discrimination.

Ponder this. Steve Jobs sometimes use other people, apart from the usual Ive, and top tier staff in the presentation. Apple/Steve Jobs is famous for not showing its latest product to the public before the anouncement. So what product model is used in such ads

One more thing, product placement is very big in television and movies these days. Do you really think that all those handling or having those Apple products in the set are all users of Apple products?

What I can accept is that it is unlikely that Samsung already has the latest product to be used in such commercials. Deceptive? Not sure; Ads for the most part is about presenting a concept that should resonate to the viewer. I am sure that you heard all those stories about "artists" not liking the products that they may be asked to "act" in the shooting, as if they did like it.

Did anyone make a big deal of such "acting" to like the product by the artists involved?

It is being too fanatic (fanboism) to make such a big deal about artists models/being used, and singlinb out Samsung or Microsoft for having used them. As I stated at the start, the company does not decide who are recruited to play those roles. The ad agency does.

CGC

Bill Gates showed a tablet with stylus ca 2005? and believed it was to become the future of personal computing. But Bill Gates dreams did not resonate with the consumers, primarily because he was thinking of it mainly as a computer (for techies); computers that many average consumers are afraid to use-- because they do not want to feel stupid with such a foreign machine, the computer.

Remember what Gates said, after he saw the iPad? "It does not even have a stylus." The implied but unsaid was that to Bill Gates, the iPad would fail.

Many consumers use their computer in a much simpler way than what techies used their computers. They do like their computers to help them do stuff that matter to them -- connecting with family and relatives, creating and sharing memories photoalbums (that is what made Kodak and all camera makers), except now it is digital. And perhaps do some creative stuff also.

Apple/Steve Jobs understood the needs of the consumers, but did even more... Maybe you may want to "use the iPad also for this. or that"... He integrated music to make the iPad even more integral to their lives. And more:

"...there's an App for that.... Only at Apple!"

All those years, it took a Steve Jobs to remember what matters to consumers. Now everyone is scrambling to follow his lead, even better him, if they can.


The Newton was a personal digital assistant. Thus, although it had some roles similar to the tablets of the mid 2000s, the Newton was never considered a portable computer in the same vein as the iPad.

CGC

Whats funny about that however is that its common knowledge based on interviews that the PC guy John Hodgman is a long long time Mac user.

Cardboard cut outs

You see this AI? A fine example of the perils of selling out on journalistic integrity.

If you start trolling for the bottom-feeders all you're going to end up with is the scum.

And posting with so much with passion? Do have the same dreams like the hero in "The Catcher in the Rye"?

CGC

I don't get why people here are so upset or amused. I've been using my Galaxy Tab 8.975 for months now to save the lives of orphans and combat financial fraud - and all faster than the competition!

OMG, Samsung is so pathetic. Yeah, they have the thinnest tablet on the market... at least in England they'd get pulled from the air if they tried to run an ad like that. I guess they can spew whatever they want at a press release, but damn...

I'm sure there are going to be Apple haters out there saying that Apple does this all the time in their press events. Geez, Apple won't even leak what a product IS until they have it working and at least in production.

I come to AppleInsider to read thoughtful, well researched and breaking news on Apple products.

On interesting articles I then tend to browse the forum for, once again, thoughtful well researched comments. On a good day I gather more information from the comment section than the article itself.

IMO AI is still the best source of Apple news, not just because of the articles but because of the intelligence of its forum members and the quality of their writing.

Sadly, and with increasing frequency, AI seems to be trolling for the dullards and brainless scum that lurk on the internet.

If it were just a matter of simply skipping those articles then I could live with it, but unfortunately the same simpletons start to infect the other article threads as well.

So why am I here? Because it's still the best source of Apple news.

Why am I so passionate about it? Because I value the writing and opinions of the intelligent members of these forums so much that I'm actually distressed by the attempt to "dumb down" the site and open the flood gates to every moron on the Internet.

I come off sounding like a pompous ass, I know, but is it really too much to ask to want to read intelligent insight from intelligent people without skimming through a hundred comments about how shit some non-Apple product is written by some dullard that has never used it?

MoveOn.org

In the U.S., such ads (where there is an implication that the ad contains actual consumers) must say "actor portrayal" or something of the sort. It might be in tiny type and flash by faster than mere mortals can see it, but it has to be there. You see this in pharmaceutical advertising all the time. It also has to state if the claims are typical, which is why there's a disclaimer in virtually all weight loss advertising, even that which does contain actual consumers, that their weight loss claims are not typical. I used to produce web sites for an infomercial company, so I'm familiar with all the legal disclaimer stuff.

You're missing the point entirely.

It's not a matter of using actors for ads it's a matter of using actors but telling us they are not actors. Almost all advertisements use actors, but it is technically illegal (in most western countries anyway), to lie in advertising or to directly mislead consumers about your product. They didn't even bother to use that old dodge of putting microscopic writing on the bottom of the screen that lets you know the situation is simulated.

The laws against this sort of deception have never been taken off the books and those of us old enough to remember when the government and the truth in advertising agencies actually took people who made ads like this to court, and eventually to jail are a bit upset that nowadays this is just par for the course. In fact it's underhanded, immoral and still (technically) illegal.

Advertising is quite literally an art that is based on deception. The whole idea is to fool people into using your product by presenting it in the best possibly light and to cover up your products flaws through creative wordplay and imagery. Out and out lying is still not allowed though, and in an industry that's "right on the edge" as it were between misdirection and outright lies, it's arguably even more important to notice when an advertiser crosses that line.

If these laws aren't upheld then there is nothing to stop anyone from saying anything they want about any product. That's the whole point.

Here Samsung is announcing a product that doesn't even exist. They are presenting "real people" who aren't actually real, who are then telling long detailed lies about using the non-existent product. They are also directly, themselves, and completely outside of the issue of the commercials, lying about the features the product has.

Advertising is of course a shady business, but almost no company is willing to go this far even in today's market. Samsung has crossed a huge line here and should really be taken to task over it.

This is literally no different than a car commercial that lies about the MPG the car gets, or how safe it is in an accident. If you can produce outright lies about your product and get away with it, the whole system will fall apart.

I just saw a few minutes of that Samsung video.

Samsung needs to execute whoever was responsible for the sound on that video. At the very least they should fire them and publicly humiliate them. Unfortunately for Samsung, the piss poor sound quality is the very least of their problems. As for the painful and embarrassing fingerprints fiasco, that could have been avoided if they weren't showing a tablet that couldn't even be turned on, too bad for them. Samsung should pull that video because it does more damage to them than good. And where was the audience? Were they speaking to a bunch of corpses? They could have at least added a laugh track to the video to liven it up a bit, because it has potential as a comedy sitcom. A 10 year old using iMovie could make a better and more professional video than Samsung did.

Nobody has a chance against Apple, but reading about all of these incapable morons, amateurs and copycats releasing their subpar products is quite interesting and amusing.

And AI, don't listen to the fools who are complaining about this article. I don't come here just to read Apple news. I also come here for entertainment purposes and to laugh at pathetic people and their pathetic products. I want to see fandroids suffer and commit suicide.

Holy crap that is creepy. And WHY, WHY I say would Samsung think it was a good idea to prominently display their shitty, shitty, MP3 player from a decade ago as apparently some sort of "look how awesome we were 10 years ago, think about how awesome we are NOW" sort of argument?

If you want more thoughtful stuff, Anandtech though not only about Apple gives very good analytical articles when any Apple product is reviewed. Jon Gruber also is another who is very receptive to Apple, but also do not mind praising the advances in other devices, even Android. Both the AnandTech and the Jon Gruber revues for the iPad2, are most insightful and thorough and the two show the strengths in their own way. There's another guy, ihnatko who writes very insightful reviews about Apple.

They are even better than the reviews of David Pogue of the New York Times or the guy at Wall Street Journal.

To be frank, some of the articles here at Apple Insider are eitehr too shallow, or too biased but not as bad as MacDaily News. One thing that I like about MacDailyNews (which is not really a news) is that the lead writer there, while very partisan always cites the source, and acknowledge the readers who tipped them about outside articles. And place at the start, "Rumor".

Quite often, some Apple Insider writers do not even prominently link the source of their material (except to use such phony "exclusive to AI", from our "reliable source" that usually turn out to be unreliable.

Alas, the forum here and most blog sites have extremes. So, what Jon Gruber did was not to place any commentary to his blog site.

CGC

I doubt I am missing the point. Part of the hysteria is that Samsung is an Apple competitor. Anyone who cannot see through the deception "deserves" to be deceived because (s)he is not using his/her mind.

Just like quite a few posters here starting with the premise and perspectives of some of articles here as if it were already established fact, and running away with it in their speculations and calling everyone who disagree a troll.

As to degrees of deception, they are still deceptions. Even Apple/Steve Jobs is not immune to doing that.


Can you be really be certain that they do not have one? Apple announced the "white iPhone" also but it is almost a year now. Sure we have faith on Apple/Steve Jobs but until it comes out, isn't it also a non-existent product. It is no different than Samsung pulling out its 10-inch tablet upon seeing what Apple iPad2 was.

Didn't Steve Jobs also prevacated, calling the AppleTV a "hobby"? How is it different from the Samsung spokesperson "choosing" his own words, "smooth" to hide the not so stellar sales of the Tab?

I will let the oversight agencies decide whether any laws were violated. And, as to legality of actions, "bribery" has been legalized in the US through our political campaign laws -- and the US Supreme Court ot only sanctioned that but even removed efforts by both sides to limit the rampant "buy your poliician" (more heinous than ads deception), all in the name of "free speech". And here we are Americans so smug in decrying more blatant bribery in other countries.

There are far far greater crimes or unethical things done by politicians, governments, institutions and people than the issue we are so impassioned about here.

CGC

While there were tablets prior to the iPad, it was Apple that made the tablets popular, thus "creating" a viable category. Before Apple, only a few thousand tablets had been sold and therefore not a category.

Oh boy... <slaps forehead>

You missed the point by a mile.

What is just terribly sad are these executives' comments

1) Constant usage of the word "consumer". Apple rarely (if ever?) does that. They refer to their users, as users. That attitude comes right through in their products. Apple think of people using their products. Samsung thinks about people opening their wallets for their products.
2) "Customer research has shown us that consumers expect different experiences for different screen sizes". The fact that Samsung needed "customer research" to figure this out is just mindblowing.

Well, let's be clear then. Yes, tablets absolutely existed before the iPad. But I am talking about dominating a 'product category' - not creating a wholly 'new' product, per se.

Before the iPod, MP3 players absolutely existed. But they were a tiny niche, at best, compared to other music-playing devices. Since the iPod, the MP3 player is probably the sales leader of all products in the music-playing device category.

You can make a similar comparison re the 'smartphone' niche in relation to the overall cell phone product category prior to the iPhone.

And you can also make a similar comparison to the 'tablet' niche in relation to the overall 'personal computer' category prior to the iPad.

Smartphones, MP3 players, and tablets barely existed as niches within larger product categories before Apple created products in those areas. After they did so, however, those niches grew quickly to dominate their respective categories. (This has, of course, not yet happened with the iPad and the 'personal computer' product category - but we can all see which way the wind is now blowing.)

It will be interesting to see how the final product stacks up. Watching the video, portrayal of the actors are real life users (Samsung executives said that repeatedly) was indeed creepy and their words were clearly marketing spun. Since this was shown at a trade show and not a television commercial, it is not clear what the legal aspects are to me. Trade shows are not known for their total honesty.

I think the most interesting aspect came at 27:10 sec in where they showed the 8.6mm figure with two beams of light sliding down the side, the light beams were showing the width of the bezel. Not the total width of the device. Photos posted showing an iPad2 laying next to the new 10.1 also show the bezel of the 10.1 to be as thick as the iPad2. I bet samsung will "clarify" what they meant by 8.6mm when the product ships.

I find it funny that they show widgets as a big deal for tablet users. Unix has them, Vista has them, my Mac has them, and they have yet to capture anyone's imagination or become a big deal. Instant on of tablets is a much bigger deal for portability. Add free apps is a much bigger deal (waiting for a banner to update before an apps does it job pisses me off for example).

Are we sure that it's on a trade show? I would bet money on self-staged event.

I personally don't think companies should just throw in the towel because Apple happens to dominate the market for a particular product. They must continue to to try to compete, otherwise there is no point being in business, and the fewer companies in business trying to compete is a very BAD thing for consumers. We should be thanking Samsung for giving it a shot. I for one (and probably the only one in this forum) will certainly check out their product.

I believe it was in Orlando at the CTIA trade show.

@ascii... you've been around since 2005 and yet you give Samsung a PASS? Huh? These was a trade presentation and the "users" were specifically introduced as happy customers. They are not tv commercials in rotation (and if they use them as commercials we can comment on how they present them).

Come on -- they flat out lied.

It's my understanding that the 10.1 is non-working at the time of the Presentation. Well, if true, then THAT is an incredible faux pas. At minimum, this should make a bit of a splash in the tech and mainstream press (...and it is getting some negative press). (Google news: http://www.google.com/search?q=samsu...w&ved=0CFUQqAI)

Hmmm... I'm not sure what you've been reading on AI because I didn't peruse any material that said that everyone should just give up... BUT... it's one thing to compete and it's another thing to flat out lie to get consumers to buy your products.

It sounds like you're saying that you still feel safe buying a product from a company that is willing to flat out lie to their customers. Personally, I am unable to support a company that is willing to deceive me to this extent.

[btw - I knew from the first thirty seconds of this vid that I was looking at a carpet warehouse presentation]

Seriously underwhelmed.

Maybe they showed "the whole video" at the CTIA?
The video was so bad it looked like no audience in the room at all.

Underwhelming maybe... but when is the last time that Apple used actors to portray real fawning customers of its non existent product.

The stories are real. The actors are representative of the real story.

The real life players probably refused to do the interview but gave the story to Samsung. Samsung used it with hired actors to portray them.

Whats so "news worthy" about this? Another lame attempt by Apple fans to pick on something as frivolous as actors.

This just goes to show you how much Apple fans are taking Samsung seriously if they have to stoop down this low just to win bragging rights.