Two of the world's biggest smartphone companies, Samsung and Apple, will soon be seen battling it out in the higher-end of the smartphone arena. With Samsung already having unleashed its most powerful smartphone, the Galaxy Note 8, and the Apple iPhone 8 launch just around the corner, the stage is set for battle royale. In this clash of the smartphones titans, Apple has an upper hand. Here's why:
Samsung may have become the world's biggest smartphone manufacturer, but it still doesn't enjoy the brand-loyalty that Apple does. Samsung equips its top-end smartphones with curved 4K Super AMOLED screens, megapixel-heavy cameras and 6 gigs of RAM. Apple takes it easy with the iPhone with its relatively smaller display, lower megapixels and lower RAM, but manages to sell more units.
Both these companies employ different strategies. While Samsung offers smartphones ranging from the affordable Galaxy J series, to its top-of-the line flagships, which are part of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series, Apple, on the other hand, relies on a different strategy altogether. It has created a premium image for itself and sells its phones at a premium price tag: even the 4-year-old iPhone 5S retails for just as much as a Samsung mid-ranger.
Samsung's current line-up consists of 56 smartphones, which the company admits is a bit too much and plans to cut down to 30 smartphones by next year. Apple offers a more "niche" line-up of 7 smartphones, which includes the soon-to-be-discontinued iPhone 5S. Apple's iconic logo is a status symbol in itself. Many people buy the iPhone, irrespective of its specs or practicality in the ever-changing smartphone world, just for flaunting the "bitten apple." That said, the iPhone 7, 7s and the 7 Plus are remarkable smartphones, the iPhone 5S just doesn't make sense in 2017.
Samsung's top-end smartphones, Galaxy S9 and S9+ showed us how smartphones can have bigger screens in a smaller form factor. The edges at both sides seem to almost make the content pop out of the screen. Apple is yet to deliver something that is as innovative. But the fact that Apple's iOS is perhaps the most refined smartphone operating system and the iPhone 8's bigger OLED display and the possibility of a fingerprint scanner integrated into the screen seems to work in favour of the iPhone 8. What's more, the iPhone 8 also marks the 10th anniversary of the iPhone.
