Samsung has unveiled its answer to the iPhone, the “Mobile Hybrid” F700 (pic below), which looks like an iPhone with a QWERTY keyboard.
Samsung is obviously gushing about its new release.
Samsung is confident that the new handset will outperform the iPhone.
“iPhone does not have a QWERTY keyboard and people are not accustomed to its touch screen. So we decided to pack a keypad into the handset,” said a Samsung spokeswoman. “It also has a very intuitive user interface.”
“We are proud to introduce this new type of innovative multimedia handset. Not only have we considered the latest technology, but also the usability to enhance the user’s multimedia experience,” said Choi Gee-sung, president of Samsung’s Telecommunications Network Business. “This multimedia driven handset is designed for consumers who wish to stand out from the crowd, showcasing unrivaled performance, advanced functionality and world-class design.”
Personally, I doubt that this phone will make much of an impact against the iPhone. LG didn’t do too well with their Prada now they are dumping the Prada in the local market for half the price, and introducing a new phone with a QWERTY keyboard.
Besides Samsung already got one thing wrong. If a person wants to stand out he/she buys an iPhone. No one goes for a Samsung if one wants to stand out in a crowd.
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Why not?
#1.
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/.....one-rival/
If a “sensationally sleek interface” and a keyboard is all that Samsung has to offer than my guess is that this new phone is not much different than its older siblings. So considering that older Samsungs weren’t on the hot list of phones you want to buy, how can the new phone make a dent in iPhone sales? And we are talking about the user interface not just its appearance.
Besides the above web page states “Honestly, we’re getting a bit tired of all these so-called iPhone rival handsets, but Samsung’s elusive Croix doesn’t do a whole lot to shake the stereotype.”
Need I say more?
Actually what I found interesting about the article about it was there was no plans to release it in Korea just yet. Interesting development in its implications. It could be that Korea’s cell phone market, while advanced, is pretty out of step with the rest of the world.
#3.
Yes it is interesting, but not surprising.
When LG introduced the Prada phone, LG first sold it in Europe before selling it here in Korea.
Producing a GSM phone is more cost-effective than a CDMA one. Simply because the market base is much bigger — and in Europe at least, Samsung phones are hip, go figure…
Once they recoup their initial investment on the GSM market, they can finance a CDMA/Korean version — which the Koreans will pay for dearly…
no wireless internet? so, is it really a rival?
and why didn’t they call it the “iFone,” like when they emulated the blackberry and called it a blackjack?
Here in Korea, the Ministry of Information and Communications is very hostile to “real Internet” on the phone handset. They want to force everyone onto the Korean i-Mode equivalent developed in 2000, which is bowdlerized Internet content delivered by the Korea-only WIPI “standard”. Now, especially with the advent of WiFi and legitimate browsers in the handset — there is a special version of Opera now, and of course the Real Deal™ of Apple’s Safari on the iPhone and iPod Touch, each of which is an actual Macintosh in the pocket of the customer — WIPI is an albatross around the neck of the Korean phone makers. They can only introduce innovative products outside the Korean market.
What a strange message. In the process of trying to be all things to all people, all semblance of a coherent product-focused message is lost. What is the purpose of the phone? Got me. I can’t tell if it is supposed to be for a fashionista or a geek. (Is it possible that there are fashionista geeks out there?)
There seems to be some disconnect between “multimedia driven handset” and “designed for consumers who wish to stand out from the crowd.” Unless, that is, people are going to stand out through their multimedia savvy.
Reading the quote a bit differently made me laugh. It is a bit unclear as to whether showcasing (v.) is referring to the phone or the consumers. Perhaps the phone is for consumers who showcase unrivaled performance, advanced functionality and world-class design.
@7
Seems that’s changed. The blackjack (blackberry?) was released a few weeks ago in Korea, and you can get it from SKT and KTF (dunno about LGTelecom). It’s got Internet Explorer on it and so I can now check my gmail on the go.
That phone is butt ugly! Say what you want about the iphone and Apple, but they get the aesthetics right.
They got one thing right, with the keyboard. But really, what’s the point with no internet access? MSM? Please… Seems even gayer than the iPhone, I must admit.
When the fuck are Nokia gonna bring their phones back to the Korean market>?!:
http://www.thebestpageintheuni.....i?u=iphone
#1 Because Apple has legions of devoted fans for their unique, trendy and usually higher performance gadgets and computers. I’ve actually seen people queue up for Apple Macs and iPhones.
Samsung on the other hand has no such “fan base” for lack of a better term. Have you ever heard someone say “I can’t wait to get the new Samsung!” You haven’t you and probably never will. Samsung is the Wrangler Jeans of electronics. Does the job but nothing to write home about.
It’s coming out in Europe first. Regarding the iPhone, people didn’t know what the hubbub was all about at first. Didn’t PDA phones have touch screens for the longest time? Is it just a brand name that’s gonna push the product? No one was sure.
I have to say when I first got to use the iPhone, its concept on user interface was revolutionary. It wasn’t simply a touch screen in the mold of the old PDAs of the past. It took that concept and took it a whole new different direction. The concept of instantaneous portrait and landscape views and an intuitive user interface were highly innovative. Now, on the flip side, I consider the iPhone a beta version of the kind of promise all this new technology has, because my ultimate thoughts on the iPhone are mixed. First of all, its touch screen doesn’t always do what you want it to do and you have to re-enter your finger commands a lot. Pain in the ass. AT&T Edge Internet service is slower than molasses and I half expected a modem screech and buzz to emanate from the damn thing. Why it’s not 3G is freakin’ beyond me. Its Safari web browser can’t go to many web sites. Its battery lasts about as long as an 18 year old guy’s first lay. Better still, the battery is not removable and will only last you 8 to 10 months in heavy use. Despite all that it does, movies, music, phone, web browser, etc. its battery life makes it impractical for you to use it as the main device for all that stuff. I know four guys who have the iPhone. One loves it and the other three just think it’s just okay.
Of course many of these drawbacks can be fixed over time, that’s why I consider the current iPhone a beta version of things to come. However, I can only laugh at the Apple cult worshippers who paid $800 for a beta product… Hehehehe…
A magic device that can do a lot of functions and do them well is going to be a fantasy until battery technology improves. We already have the necessary software and electronic technologies to make it happen, but if using the music and media functions a lot means that you can only have a few five minute phone conversations, then what’s the point?
It’s kind of like having a super hot girl friend who won’t have sex with you too often. What’s the point of having her when all you can do is show off her hot body to your friends? Eh, but I suppose there are guys who wouldn’t mind having that superficial accessory. But then there you have it. The mentality of the average iPhone buyer.
There seems to be a lot of “hate” going around about Samsung and their products here. Well, for those who think that, consider this. The “heart” of the iPhone, the chip that handles CPU and media functions (and the most expensive single part in the phone) is made by Samsung.
Come to France — the suburbs kids [that would be the "uptown brothers" in the US] rave about the latest Samsung. I have no idea why but hey! Their loss…
CPU functions? Da heck is that…? CPU means Central Processing Unit, so it’s not a set of functions, but a chip.
Besides, a chip is nothing — it’s what you make of it that counts… See what an Intel processor does inside a Dell and a Mac…
Ah… but dda,
Apple looked into using an Intel CPU but couldn’t find one that fit the optimal performance, power usage and media handling requirements that the Samsung chip was able to handle. I’m sure you can fit an Intel Dual Core or Centrino chip into an iPhone, but it would probably have a battery life of 1 hour and be half the size of a laptop. Clearly impractical for a cell phone.
Hmmm I think you misunderstood me. I don’t want to put a Core 2 Duo into an iPhone
What I meant is with the same CPU, any CPU, one can produce crappy hardware and OSes [Dell, Windows] or nice[r] stuff [Macs, OS X, NeXT, etc].
Well, as I said before, Apple already looked into Intel chips and couldn’t find one that met their requirements. Cell phones are a different animal then dedicated computers. There are power usage and space trade offs and requirements. Samsung, with their greater experience in minaturization for their own cell phone, pda and media player products, just had a product that was better then what Intel had for the iPhone.
Still, it’s just a dumb chip — and without Apple’s know-how, it’d be nuthin’ more remarkable than my morning dump…
dda,
I don’t know why you are calling the Samsung S5L8900 processor dumb? Good processors are not yet a commodity. If the iPhone didn’t have the S5L and had, instead, a comparable non-Samsung processor currently available then it would probably have 5 hours less talk time, which would pretty much render it useless as a cell phone.
WangKon936, you are correct but dda is also correct in that the Samsung chip itself is nothing without the iPhone. It’s a bit like the chicken and egg thing.
Anyways, in the end, the thing that matters the most to the consumers is the finished product itself, not the components.
Now iPhone is using a Samsung chip since it is the only one that meets Apple requirements. But let’s say that a Taiwanese company comes up with a better and cheaper chip. Then obviously Apple will switch suppliers, which means the iPhone will still be there doing its thing but Samsung won’t be there with it.
Also one more thing, a bit off topic, regarding components.
A lot of Korean made weapon systems use foreign made components. But do the Korean media or the public for that matter care whether or not there are foreign made components in that particular weapon system?
The answer is no. The Korean media and the MND fall over themselves proclaiming a so and so tank, armored vehicle, or trainer as proof of Korean technical prowress. But no one comes up and says, “Hey the engine for that trainer is from GE”.
mins0306,
You are correct in that if Apple found a cheaper chip producer, then they would probably go with that. However, that’s another 6 months to a year at least before that happens. In the tech industry that’s pretty dang critical.
Btw… even iPods still use Samsung chips and they have been around for four years.
I agree with you that saying Korean weapons systems are 100% “indigenous” is hog wash. I’d really wish Korean companies would stop doing that.
WangKon, I don’t know why you are trumpeting the Samsung S5L8900 CPU as some kind of “triumph of Korean technology”. It’s a design licensed from ARM. Samsung’s role is limited to running the fab. Not insignificant, because it requires mastery of process. But not innovative either — all the thinking work is done by ARM.
Well of course… And a Mac is nothing but a Dell with an extra coupla chips, some different software, and a much higher price tag. But the whole point of owning an Apple is the experience… From the dude making minimum wage behind the counter (ironically labeled ‘genius’) offering to polish you off in the alley behind the store as soon as your credit card clears to the on-screen icons that magically *pop up* when you mouse over them rather than just sitting there like lifeless utilitarian…. uhm… icons…
Because all CPUs and related chips ARE dumb. They provide bit crunching, period. The elegant design, the snazzy functionalities don’t come from the CPU, but from engineers @ Cupertino…
The Samsung name means one thing in terms of quality — crap. Once anyone ever buys anything made by Samsung, results in them never making the same mistake again.
Oddly, their domestic cell service offered through Anycall is rated #1 by Koreans. SK has been really good, and apparently has all the government contracts. It leads me to believe that Samsung engaged in some monkey business to manipulate the outcome of the survey…
–Remort
couldnt they at least be a bit more subtle with the ripping off Apple’s design?
Dear Wang kong:
iPhone was $500 and $600, not $800. Now it is $400.
Does this thing run windows mobile? There’s a real winner of an os right there…so what exactly did samsung add here? What is their value proposition? OS by Microsoft, design by Apple…basically samsung has made itself an unoriginal product that puts it in the unenviable position of just waiting to be undercut by similarly unoriginal Chinese manufacturers
this post was brought to you by the Wharton school of Business and my iPhone
#29- Does this thing run windows mobile? There’s a real winner of an os right there…
Indeed. The old shorthand is oh-so-fitting: WinCE.
I merrily go off into my weekend and come back to the ‘hole’ and find more messages of love shot off towards my direction. Lovely.
# 25, Brendon-
I never said the chip was a “triumph of Korean technology.” This place is rife with people who want to put words in my mouth and peg a “type” onto me. Get’s tiring…
Brendon and dda,
I don’t know if you know this, and it may even be a suprise to you, but the key to its simple interface is a screen that responds to several touches at once. It makes rapid text entry possible, web navigation without a mouse, etc. The screen is built by a German company called Balda, but the technology itself, LICENSED to Balda, is neither American nor European. It was originally developed by a Chinese to help with the input of Chinese characters.
Be it Suwon or Cupertino, tech isn’t always original but it is global.
# 29, Janus-
Did you not read the context of my last post? $800 was what guys who wanted to get it the first day or so had to pay. How do I calculate this? Well, if you don’t have your phone for two years or more, you have to pay $150 AND $30 activation charge right? Of the four friends of mine who HAD to get the iPhone immediately, all of them still had contracts with their old phones so they had to pay $180 extra to get the damn thing to work on AT&T’s network. Thus, what’s the “out-the-door” costs eh? $600 + $180 + $50 sales taxes = $830.
Similar situation with the RAZR. I know people who shelled $200 for the phone and $150 + $30 to get out of the contract. To be an earlier adopter of new cell phones is an expensive proposition due to what you have to pay to get out of the contract.
Lastly, it’s amazing to read the contrasting comments on Samsung in places like the ‘hole’ and tech blogs like here:
http://www.techeblog.com/index.....iller-f700
and
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9685303-1.html
#32 -
Thanks for the links, WangKon. I gleaned some more information about the Samsung F700 from them. Some highlights:
* It does not run WinCE, but a custom Samsung-developed OS. It looks pretty in pictures, but raises a lot of questions: usability, third-party apps, compatibility, etc. As Brendon noted above, the browser will be a big issue: if it doesn’t support Web 2.0 standards, it’s already fallen well short of iPhone’s full-featured Safari browser. Also, the compatibility issue is particularly noteworthy because Samsung’s sync software is Windows-only and notoriously crappy.
* No WiFi capability. You’re tied to the expense and spotty coverage of current 3G networks for web browsing, downloading, etc. Also means no possibility of cheap-as-free third party VoIP apps.
With these issues in view, I think it’s extremely presumptuous to term this an “iPhone killer.” A viable alternative, perhaps, for those who prefer a tactile keyboard and are willing to make the other tradeoffs. But a killer? I think not.
Wish I had remembered these before I clicked “Post Comment” above.
Anyway, when it comes to Samsung’s notoriously crappy phone manager software, don’t take my word for it:
http://www.shitware.net/Home/t.....fault.aspx
http://www.shitware.net/Home/t.....fault.aspx
http://www.shitware.net/Home/t.....fault.aspx
Complete with video (second and third links). See for yourself.
Ut,
You have a point. Samsung’s user interface is traditionally bad. I currently have the Blackjack and the UI constantly frustrates me. It’s not intuitive and causes click fatigue.
Tons of questions of Samsung’s Croix UI. Looks pretty in pictures and an interesting concept. Let’s see how it works in real life. However, intuitive, elegant software is not yet a Korean strength (but neither is it a strength of a software company in Redmond, WA) so my hopes are not high.
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