Most folks here are too young to remember that Apple once enjoyed almost a decade lead in processing power on the RISC based PowerPc platform over Intel's x86. It wasn't until the late 00' when AMD and Intel made significant increases in processing power at much lower prices. A few years late Steve Jobs had no choice but to join x86 as IBM and Motorola could not compete against Intel. It's very possible that apple will lose their custom ARM SOC to another company this decade. Intel could compete with them directly if they wanted to. But it seems Samsung or Qualcomm have made lots of process and have eroded the Apple processing power. All they really need is more work with Google to optimize the platform better.
If anyone has owned the S6 Edge+ and iPhone 6S+ can tell the Samsung device is simply amazing. It has a much higher screen resolution and usable surface than the iPhone 6S+. The camera is amazing in low light and resolution. The curved screen is a thing of beauty. iPhone just looks so dated and ordinary next to it.
Back in those days Apple wasn't a $230b+ revenue giant selling 100s of millions of devices with each chip it designs and vertically integrates with the rest of its hardware/software stack. It's a whole new game that Apple is by far in the best position to win.
It's a very mature market. I don't expect this to change. iPhone and Galaxy will be like Mercedes and BMW. The best you can get, and it comes down to your personal preference. I don't see how one could gain a real technological advantage over the other in the near future.
But of course, iPhone will always be smarter, more stylish and simply the best. I'll never change for Samsung!
That's a horrible comparison. Merc and BMW are neck and neck as regards to luxury car sales and unit sales. Apple sells 2x or 3x more high end phones than Samsung.
The better comparison is Merc vs Infiniti or BMW vs Acura.
Do you even know the story of BMW? Telling from your abbreviation of Mercedes-Benz as "Merc", you are not very familiar with the industry.
BMW just became 100, while Daimler-Benz and their car division, Mercedes-Benz Cars, is roughly 30 years older. MBC and BMW may be on par these days speaking in terms of quality of their cars and sales figures, but historically, BMW was the smaller and cheaper car, whileas Mercedes always was the synonym for success & luxury. These days, it has somehow become arbitrary which brand you choose and it comes down to personal preference.
Therefore, while MBC/BMW vs. Infiniti/Acura might be a suitable analogy for Apple vs. Samsung two years ago (when Samsung launched the S5 to start playing in the premium market), the comparison MBC vs. BMW is what this smartphone market is heading into with each new product, which was the point of macapfel - a mature market in which marketing and personal preference increasingly become a purchase decision factor and importance of technology is decreasingly important. And I agree with that opinion. No wonder that news articles are popping up forecasting the end of smartphones, at least as we know them (e.g. the Sony CEO, last week I believe)
There probably is no perfect comparison, only in terms of a certain aspect. I give you the point that MBC and BMW are a less-than-ideal fit for a comparison if you consider origin or culture. MBC and BMW are both German, and in this understanding they are a better comparison to Microsoft vs. Apple, both being US-American companies. If you want to compare Apple vs. Samsung from a culture perspective, then perhaps Californian Tesla vs. Korean Hyundai/Kia could be a suitable comparison. Hyundai Kia has long been criticised for their copycat-design, but with a new European designer team, they have now launched beautiful cars that nobody can claim anymore being a cheap Korean copy of a Western product. This is what Samsung should do in the future. Tesla is what Apple was when they just announced the iPhone back in 2007. Everyone's darling but with a (beautiful) product that is not yet affordable enough for the masses. Imagine where Tesla will be in 10 years, if they follow Apples lead...
PS: Let me comment on the absolute sales figures of the premium segment: they do not tell much about quality of the products anyways but since you brought this argument up, did you know that Mercedes S-Class has 2x the sales figures of the BMW 7? Why bring up numbers that clearly are against your own argument? (Source: http://www.automobil-produktion.de/hersteller/wirtschaft/ihs-neuer-7er-bmw-kann-mercedes-s-klasse-bei-absatz-nicht-gefaehrden-389.html)
That's a horrible comparison. Merc and BMW are neck and neck as regards to luxury car sales and unit sales. Apple sells 2x or 3x more high end phones than Samsung.
The better comparison is Merc vs Infiniti or BMW vs Acura.
I think a better example would be Chevy. They have a lot of features, but the underlying car is still average and won't age as well as a BMW or Mercedes.
Also Samsung is an evil chaebol. They wouldn't have issues with murdering people via crappy ignition switches or whatever.
I think that car comparison doesn't work in general, though I understand what are people trying to underline here.
If you check polls regarding different automotive brands reliability, for example, you can find some where Chevy on average seems to be more reliable than Merc and BMW. Anecdotal as it may be, I know very few pre-owned premium Euro cars' owners who had easy ride with their purchase... opposite to Toyotas, Subarus and other Japanese who gave their owners much more trouble-free ownership, within the same age.
Unless you mean something else when you say that Euro premiums age better. Their image certainly make them look more desirable than Japs of same age, but that's mostly skin deep. They come with much bigger baggage, on average.
I have read where single core tasks were faster on the 6s while multi-core tests were faster on the S7. Also read that the GPU was faster on the S7.
Need to find where I saw tht yesterday.
Single core is far more important considering how few Apps actually utilize multiple cores. Faster GPU is useless if it throttles after a few minutes.
On iOS, that's true, but in the case of Android (which this is), more cores can be utilized for additional performance and/or efficiency. The Vulkan API, that recently launched, will also see benefits from additional cores.
Imagination Technologies (the company behind the graphics in the A# SoC's) demonstrated last year an early version of Vulkan and just some of the performance benefits of OpenGL ES vs. Vulkan on the same 4 core SoC with a PowerVR GPU:
Most folks here are too young to remember that Apple once enjoyed almost a decade lead in processing power on the RISC based PowerPc platform over Intel's x86. It wasn't until the late 00' when AMD and Intel made significant increases in processing power at much lower prices. A few years late Steve Jobs had no choice but to join x86 as IBM and Motorola could not compete against Intel. It's very possible that apple will lose their custom ARM SOC to another company this decade. Intel could compete with them directly if they wanted to. But it seems Samsung or Qualcomm have made lots of process and have eroded the Apple processing power. All they really need is more work with Google to optimize the platform better.
If anyone has owned the S6 Edge+ and iPhone 6S+ can tell the Samsung device is simply amazing. It has a much higher screen resolution and usable surface than the iPhone 6S+. The camera is amazing in low light and resolution. The curved screen is a thing of beauty. iPhone just looks so dated and ordinary next to it.
Back in those days Apple wasn't a $230b+ revenue giant selling 100s of millions of devices with each chip it designs and vertically integrates with the rest of its hardware/software stack. It's a whole new game that Apple is by far in the best position to win.
It's a very mature market. I don't expect this to change. iPhone and Galaxy will be like Mercedes and BMW. The best you can get, and it comes down to your personal preference.
NOT AT FUC*ING ALL
Mercerdes and BMW are different from one another. iPhone and iPhoney will be like Jordan shoes and cheap knockoffs named Jurdan's. People who can afford the real thing will have iPhones, broke and dumb people will buy the knockoff and pretend it's "just as good". This is already happening.
Samsung is a huge threat - to LG, htc, MS. They are all terrified! Samsung is in danger of making a profit - probably its last - this year.
Good-bye and good riddance to 'em!
I'm stunned that unfinished crap can score more than an iPhone. The main reason I stopped bothering with paid hyperbole sites.
It's a very mature market. I don't expect this to change. iPhone and Galaxy will be like Mercedes and BMW. The best you can get, and it comes down to your personal preference.
NOT AT FUC*ING ALL
Mercerdes and BMW are different from one another. iPhone and iPhoney will be like Jordan shoes and cheap knockoffs named Jurdan's. People who can afford the real thing will have iPhones, broke and dumb people will buy the knockoff and pretend it's "just as good". This is already happening.
Hmmmm must be why iPhones sales are down and Samsung's are up. Android marketshare is also up.
Samsung makes the Galaxy look and feel closer to the iPhone 6 complete with front glass and it is somehow now innovating to become competitive with Apple.
Had dinner tonight with a friend who just got an S7. He loves it and it was easy to see why: the screen (which covered virtually all of the display) was razor sharp; the curved edges were really cool, battery life was more than sufficient, and although very thin, the sides weren't prone to slippage, so he's forgoing getting a case. As an iPhone 6s owner, it made me realize that Apple had better recognize that iPhone competitors have not only caught up with them in many regards, but in some areas, surpassed them. Apple can't afford to sit on its laurels like Motorola did in the 80's and 90's. The StarTac was a huge success as was the (subsequent) Razr, but then they let the competition leave them behind. Apple needs to move forward quickly with an OLED display, and better battery life, at least on the smaller iPhones. Once Samsung addresses it's somewhat glitchy software, then all bets are off unless Apple makes a real difference in the iPhone 7 or 8. It's time.
Single core is far more important considering how few Apps actually utilize multiple cores. Faster GPU is useless if it throttles after a few minutes.
On iOS, that's true, but in the case of Android (which this is), more cores can be utilized for additional performance and/or efficiency. The Vulkan API, that recently launched, will also see benefits from additional cores.
Imagination Technologies (the company behind the graphics in the A# SoC's) demonstrated last year an early version of Vulkan and just some of the performance benefits of OpenGL ES vs. Vulkan on the same 4 core SoC with a PowerVR GPU:
*Vulkan is on the left
What a load of crap. The OS (iOS or Android) is not what determines how many cores can be used - they can BOTH schedule threads across cores as needed. What matters is how the developer has coded their App and whether or not the workload can actually be split up across multiple threads AND those threads are all doing an equal amount of work.
If Thread A is running on Core 1 and is doing a lot of work (keeping the core at 80%) and Thread B is running on Core 2, but sitting idle 95% of the time then there's no point splitting these threads up across two separate cores. They aren't doing the same amount of work and the extra core is providing no additional performance benefit. Better to run a single core at 85% then one core at 80% and another at 5%.
Your Vulcan comparison is pointless as it's just showing multi-threaded Vulkan vs single-threaded OpenGL. It has NOTHING to do with having a large number of slower cores (Samsung Exynos) vs a smaller number of powerful cores (Apple A9).
Almost 9 gigs of bloatware? That is ridiculous. If Apple had that much bloatware, you would see a media frenzy followed by a class action lawsuit.
This is not going to change unfortunately. The carriers have the Android phone manufacturers by the short and curlies for one thing, so the likes of Samsung have no choice but to let the carriers install whatever they want. The thin margins on these devices also mean that manufacturers will seek out bloatware to bolster revenue.
These phones get quickly discounted by $100-$200 in a matter of months.
Plus there are alot of dumb people who will charge this to a credit card and end up paying $1500 for it with interest.
The statistics are undeniable. Educated, successful, and rich people are more likely to buy iPhones than Samsung. Its a fact.
From real world experience most people I see who have Samsung phones are usually poor, uneducated, or just flat out dummies. Sorry. I do have friends who are smart/rich that have Samsung but very few. I'd say 95% of my friends who are smart/successful have iPhone. The only reason why he still has Samsung is because he hates change and wants to stick with the same brand till they go bankrupt.
If US government is successful in forcing Apple to reduce iOS security this could be the start of the downfall of Apple. I know many educated, successful, and rich people regard their privacy as utmost important.
If the US government is successful then Samsung et al will immediately reduce security on their phones (without being asked) so they don't fall foul of the same of same law enforcement agencies. The net result will that ALL phones will be insecure and so Apple will be largely unaffected.
Long term though, I suspect we will see the Chinese manufacturers making huge sales 'under the counter' by offering phones immune to FBI spying, though they will probably be spying for foreign governments instead.
Comments
If anyone has owned the S6 Edge+ and iPhone 6S+ can tell the Samsung device is simply amazing. It has a much higher screen resolution and usable surface than the iPhone 6S+. The camera is amazing in low light and resolution. The curved screen is a thing of beauty. iPhone just looks so dated and ordinary next to it.
Back in those days Apple wasn't a $230b+ revenue giant selling 100s of millions of devices with each chip it designs and vertically integrates with the rest of its hardware/software stack. It's a whole new game that Apple is by far in the best position to win.
"Early reviews peg Samsung's Galaxy S7 as a serious contender for best Android smartphone"
At this point in time, there's really not much cross-platform competition in smartphones. Or if there is, it's one way -- Android to iOS switching.If you check polls regarding different automotive brands reliability, for example, you can find some where Chevy on average seems to be more reliable than Merc and BMW. Anecdotal as it may be, I know very few pre-owned premium Euro cars' owners who had easy ride with their purchase... opposite to Toyotas, Subarus and other Japanese who gave their owners much more trouble-free ownership, within the same age.
Unless you mean something else when you say that Euro premiums age better. Their image certainly make them look more desirable than Japs of same age, but that's mostly skin deep. They come with much bigger baggage, on average.
Imagination Technologies (the company behind the graphics in the A# SoC's) demonstrated last year an early version of Vulkan and just some of the performance benefits of OpenGL ES vs. Vulkan on the same 4 core SoC with a PowerVR GPU:
*Vulkan is on the left
Good-bye and good riddance to 'em!
I'm stunned that unfinished crap can score more than an iPhone. The main reason I stopped bothering with paid hyperbole sites.
Riiiiiight...
It's time.
What a load of crap. The OS (iOS or Android) is not what determines how many cores can be used - they can BOTH schedule threads across cores as needed. What matters is how the developer has coded their App and whether or not the workload can actually be split up across multiple threads AND those threads are all doing an equal amount of work.
If Thread A is running on Core 1 and is doing a lot of work (keeping the core at 80%) and Thread B is running on Core 2, but sitting idle 95% of the time then there's no point splitting these threads up across two separate cores. They aren't doing the same amount of work and the extra core is providing no additional performance benefit. Better to run a single core at 85% then one core at 80% and another at 5%.
Your Vulcan comparison is pointless as it's just showing multi-threaded Vulkan vs single-threaded OpenGL. It has NOTHING to do with having a large number of slower cores (Samsung Exynos) vs a smaller number of powerful cores (Apple A9).
Long term though, I suspect we will see the Chinese manufacturers making huge sales 'under the counter' by offering phones immune to FBI spying, though they will probably be spying for foreign governments instead.