Sorry Apple, This is Really Samsung’s Month

I find if you write about Android or Apple, you are often a target for people who will flame you on social media for being pro-Samsung/Google or Apple. Actually I am not pro-anyone… I use Android, iOS and Windows 8 – often all within the same hour.

Having said that, many people in my office are iPhone users and it seems a casual survey of them shows almost all have decided to take the plunge and buy the iPhone 6 Plus which is likely one of the tallest phones you will find with any frequency. Its 6.2 inches tall in fact!

It’s funny really, many people who have ordered it are actually scared that the phone is too big. Personally I have probably been the most vocal person around regarding the need for such an iOS device (since 2011) and now that I ordered it, I wonder how on earth I will attach it to my waist when running. Any tips are appreciated.

Having said that, I saw the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge recently and the screens on these devices are absolutely breathtaking. I have to say they are the best screens I have ever seen on a phone by far.

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Not only that but the Edge is an amazing device because the rounded portion functions as a separate display and has its own UI meaning you can scroll through apps and other information just by swiping the round part of the screen. What’s more, it feels very natural to do so and it is actually pleasing to the finger.

To illustrate further, you can be looking at your home screen and at the same time see a stock ticker on the curved part of the screen. You can then swipe the curve and see the weather, news of the day, favorite contacts, etc.

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Moreover, the Note 4 can be placed in a pair of Gear VR glasses that Samsung sells meaning it has yet another function.

Yes, the iPhone 6 is even taller and yes, the 6 Plus has the approximate screen size of a Galaxy note II and yes, iOS 8 is much better than iOS 7. But really, much of what Apple has done is catch up.

In the past, Apple told the Android community that it knew best. It offered a taller, not wider phone with the introduction of the iPhone 5 which in a way told people who asked for a wider phone that they didn’t know what they needed. Only Apple did.

But now, Cupertino has made it obvious that it will listen to customers and “borrow” much more from the Android community as needed.

Android users will tell you that many of the new “breakthroughs” that Apple is touting like NFC have been available on their devices for years. And yes, they are absolutely correct. But with these new 6 models, Apple users who like iMessage and use iCloud get better hardware to connect them to the ecosystem they know and oftentimes love.

This month really belongs to Samsung when it comes to innovation. They have screen resolutions which are far superior to even the iPhone 6 Plus, better cameras (front and rear) and they offer an innovation via a curved screen that will prove much more useful as developers start to embrace it.

Apple on the other hand has more or less copied. This doesn’t mean Apple won’t sell a zillion new devices as a result, it just shows that post-Steve Jobs the company seems to be saying, we can copy some of the other guys’ ideas without damaging our company.

This is a huge deal because it means the OS wars will get far more competitive over time as companies will hopefully spend less time litigating and more time innovating. And those innovations will get “emulated” by the others over time.

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