Aatos.1
Android Enthusiast
I'm going to share just a bit of background on my Samsung experience & knowledge about the cellular divison, for those who may not have been a mobile phone enthusiast as long as I have, nor have had as many phones as I.
At last count in the last five years, I've had over 82 new phones of all brands, the good majority I've brought in directly from Hong Kong via a distributor I know. I'm not bragging, just giving you an idea of what I've had when it comes to comparing and evaluating new models today. For those who wonder where I would learn of all of these phones, my absolute favorite phone listing site is GSMArena.com - GSM phone reviews, news, opinions, votes, manuals and more... . This site provides detailed specs on every phone in the world. It's amazing.
I am in no way affiliated with or advocating for Samsung, but simply sharing this info to debunk a few misunderstandings and myths about Samsung's cellular division & their phones.
The early Samsung "feature phones" (the new label for dumb phones) and before there was such a thing as a "smartphone", Samsung phones were only average at best when we are talking about call quality, clarity, and connectivity. Feature wise they've always been competitive, but rather cheaply built.
Fast forward to a few years ago.
Samsung (as you know is a Giant Corp) finally woke up to realize that Apple was making windfall profits from the iPhone.
Once it truly sunk in, Samsung decided they wanted a piece of that lucrative pie known as smartphones. Until that day, they had thought of mobile phones as just another product for them to sell.
So long story short, they had a series of serious meetings and decided to redouble their efforts and create a very good, well made, effective smarphone as a starting point to begin to compete with Apple. The Galaxy S is that phone. Having released it in Asia and other parts of the world first, they achieved very good public reception and sold huge the Galaxy S in huge numbers. Far more than any other Samsung phone thus far.
Their next target was the market in the USA. They decided to aggressively pursue AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile with the plan of releasing almost concurrently with all four. They offered each a slightly redesigned outer shell and a few feature variations, so as to give each carrier a different looking Galaxy S.
Samsung recommitted to themselves that this project and all smartphones going forward would become a priority within the larger scheme of things, and quality, good call performance and overall advancements would be their goal.
Finally they made a substantial increase in their service and support, and be sure to push out updates as quickly as they were made available to them, from Google / Android.
So that's the story as I know it and so far I think their doing pretty well considering it hasn't been all that long since the first Galaxy S.
Then why do updates take so long? You ask? It's my understanding that in an effort to offer the phone to the various carriers at the lowest possible price, they offered it without updates. Then they entered into an agreement that the carriers would pay a modest price for updates as they became available.
Well as it is turning out, the carriers would rather sell you a newer model, than mess with updates. So that's why everyone blames it on Samsung. I
I have been both an AT&T and Verizon customer for the last 12 years and have very close relations with both companies. Once again, I share that only so that you know I can speak frankly and honestly without being biased towards either. Enough of that for now.
Here's my quick take on my new Samsung Galaxy S 2, this is one REALLY excellent phone. And I'm one that has equal enthusiasm for HTC Androids as well.
There are just two changes I'd like on the S2.
1) Install a 4.5" display (it's a person preference).
2) Re-label it Nexus 3, and give us the pure vanilla Android experience just like my Nexus S.
Cheers ...
At last count in the last five years, I've had over 82 new phones of all brands, the good majority I've brought in directly from Hong Kong via a distributor I know. I'm not bragging, just giving you an idea of what I've had when it comes to comparing and evaluating new models today. For those who wonder where I would learn of all of these phones, my absolute favorite phone listing site is GSMArena.com - GSM phone reviews, news, opinions, votes, manuals and more... . This site provides detailed specs on every phone in the world. It's amazing.
I am in no way affiliated with or advocating for Samsung, but simply sharing this info to debunk a few misunderstandings and myths about Samsung's cellular division & their phones.
The early Samsung "feature phones" (the new label for dumb phones) and before there was such a thing as a "smartphone", Samsung phones were only average at best when we are talking about call quality, clarity, and connectivity. Feature wise they've always been competitive, but rather cheaply built.
Fast forward to a few years ago.
Samsung (as you know is a Giant Corp) finally woke up to realize that Apple was making windfall profits from the iPhone.
Once it truly sunk in, Samsung decided they wanted a piece of that lucrative pie known as smartphones. Until that day, they had thought of mobile phones as just another product for them to sell.
So long story short, they had a series of serious meetings and decided to redouble their efforts and create a very good, well made, effective smarphone as a starting point to begin to compete with Apple. The Galaxy S is that phone. Having released it in Asia and other parts of the world first, they achieved very good public reception and sold huge the Galaxy S in huge numbers. Far more than any other Samsung phone thus far.
Their next target was the market in the USA. They decided to aggressively pursue AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile with the plan of releasing almost concurrently with all four. They offered each a slightly redesigned outer shell and a few feature variations, so as to give each carrier a different looking Galaxy S.
Samsung recommitted to themselves that this project and all smartphones going forward would become a priority within the larger scheme of things, and quality, good call performance and overall advancements would be their goal.
Finally they made a substantial increase in their service and support, and be sure to push out updates as quickly as they were made available to them, from Google / Android.
So that's the story as I know it and so far I think their doing pretty well considering it hasn't been all that long since the first Galaxy S.
Then why do updates take so long? You ask? It's my understanding that in an effort to offer the phone to the various carriers at the lowest possible price, they offered it without updates. Then they entered into an agreement that the carriers would pay a modest price for updates as they became available.
Well as it is turning out, the carriers would rather sell you a newer model, than mess with updates. So that's why everyone blames it on Samsung. I
I have been both an AT&T and Verizon customer for the last 12 years and have very close relations with both companies. Once again, I share that only so that you know I can speak frankly and honestly without being biased towards either. Enough of that for now.
Here's my quick take on my new Samsung Galaxy S 2, this is one REALLY excellent phone. And I'm one that has equal enthusiasm for HTC Androids as well.
There are just two changes I'd like on the S2.
1) Install a 4.5" display (it's a person preference).
2) Re-label it Nexus 3, and give us the pure vanilla Android experience just like my Nexus S.
Cheers ...