During its big Unpacked event for the Galaxy Note 7 on Monday, Samsung couldn’t help but take some sly swipes at its biggest rival. Its targets were the Apple Pencil and the rumored lack of headphone jack on the upcoming iPhone 7 series.
Samsung has a right to be cocky right now. In the Galaxy Note 7, it has a flagship phablet that’s going to take some beating. Its gorgeous design, stellar specifications, and features like water-resistance mean life will be tough for Apple and the iPhone 7 Plus.
“Do you wanna know what else it comes with?” asked Justin Denison, Samsung’s VP of marketing during the keynote. “An audio jack… I’m just saying.”
We still don’t know for certain that the iPhone 7 won’t have a headphone hack — we’ll have to wait for Apple to confirm that — but almost every rumour and leak we’ve seen so far suggests users will have to rely on Lightning and wireless headphones instead.
Denison also mocked the Apple Pencil and its $99 price tag while promoting the S Pen, which comes bundled with every Galaxy Note smartphone for free, and never needs to be charged. Samsung has also altered its design this year so it can’t be inserted the wrong way!
[via iPhoneHacks]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
20 responses to “Samsung mocks Apple, iPhone 7 during Galaxy Note 7 event”
LOL! Because mocking Apple in the past has borne such good fruit.
Exactly – remember back with the iPhone 5 (I think) when Apple announced and one thing that was new was the headphone jack moving to the bottom? Samsung’s great commercial (at the time) showed someone with his “mind blown” with that change. Then with the Galaxy S6, where did the headphone jack end up? At the bottom….
How long before Samsung makes the move on the headphone jack as well?
I don’t care whether Apple will do it or not but 3.5mm connector has to go. It’s a relic of the past – we need to switch to a digital connector sooner rather than later. If Apple starts the process – fine. If someone else does – fine as well. Just move forward already.
I believe another phone maker ditched the 3.5mm connector and Apple STILL hasn’t released the iPhone 7, so mocking an unreleased product is just desperation.
Samsung needs to get their act together on their already shipping Galaxy S7 Active that failed the water resistant test, Samsung is STILL running those ads and that’s consumer fraud. Freaking idiots.
Motorola has three phones in their lineup with no 3.5mm port, and LeEco and Oppo have phones that ditched it a long time ago.
All three use the USB-C port which is a standard, the lightning port is a propriatary Apple only port. Potentially one will be able to use USB-C port headphones with devices from many other vendors, not so the lightning port.
Actually, Oppo’s R5 – the first smartphone to ditch 3.5mm, AFAIK – has a microUSB port, but that’s beside the point.
We can argue about the virtues of standardized ports vs proprietary ports all day long, but it will get us no where.
There were similar arguments when Apple ditched the 30-pin connector, and you would have thought it was going to result in the end of the world based on what many internet commenters believe, but Apple went on to sell more phones than ever.
I’m not saying things will play out the same way this time around, necessarily, but the fact of the matter is that vendors are already selling headphones for USB-C and Lightning connector types, and users requiring either will buy something appropriate or deal with an adapter.
The world will move on, and in a few year’s time people will wonder why we ever made such a big deal about this.
What is the advantage to removing the headphone jack? OTOH there would be a clear advantage to replace the lightning port with a USB-C port and using that standard port (which Apple had substantial involvement in the design of) for audio. That move would have substantial legs going forward and also be compatible with the latest Mac laptop and probably future Macs.
You are contradicting yourself by saying there is no clear advantage in removing the headphone jack and then in the next sentence saying there is a clear advantage in replacing the Lightning port in favor of USB-C port for audio.
If Apple goes USB-C, then they lose all control over over peripherals (and by that I don’t just mean that they don’t get to collect licensing fees). If they want to extend the capabilities of Lightning, such as by adding analog audio support like you suggested they might do, then they can just engineer a solution to make this a reality. If they wanted to do this with USB-C, then tough shit. They would have to wait for a standards body to approve their revision, and there is no guarantee that such a revision will ever get approved. Control over USB-C is out of their hands, whereas Apple has complete control over Lightning. This is a clear advantage afforded by sticking with a proprietary connection rather than a standardized connector type like USB-C.
There’s also the matter that Apple has no control over the certification of USB-C devices and cables. An MFi-certified pair of Lightning headphones is guaranteed to meet the standards which Apple determined are necessary in order to ensure they work properly and safely with your device, and iOS devices look to see if they are certified and will throw a warning if they aren’t.
This is not an option with USB-C. Apple can recommend more stringent standards and hope that vendors attempt to meet them, but they cannot impose it at the system level. A device with a USB-C connector is either compliant with USB-C or it isn’t, Apple can’t enforce their own standards on quality control over USB-C. This is another clear a clear disadvantage of standardized connections.
And if you don’t think it matters, look at stories of poorly constructed USB-C cables frying people’s computers, or cables and peripherals that just plain don’t work right out of the box. This is something you just don’t see with MFi-certified equipment. And for that matter, look at the huge variations in quality of 3.5mm cables and headphones. There is a clear advantage in being able to define a baseline of quality for third-party hardware, which is only possible with a proprietary connection.
By the rant it seems Apple made a mistake of using USB-C on the Mac laptop. And by extension to all standards Apple has chosen such as USB, SCSI, SD card support, Display Port, HDMI, etc. Sorry but standards are what makes the computer world, indeed most of the world interoperate. Further it appears that Apple was the main designer of USB-C. Also note that Europe is requiring USB connectors for power, USB-C would eliminate a dongle. Apple can still innovate with USB, as an example Apple started providing 2.1A USB power and it is not rather ubiquitous. As for poor USB cables there are many poor lightning cables available, I have had some.
An informed response is a “rant”? I think I was being pretty objective, but if it makes you feel better to believe that my previous comment was some kind of impassioned diatribe, then feel free. I apologize in advance if your feelings are hurt by any emotional outbursts that may follow below.
> Sorry but standards are what makes the computer world, indeed most of the world interoperate.
As I pointed out already, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of market pressure for iPhone to “interoperate” at the hardware level. It’s not an imperative.
Macs aren’t a different story, as Apple doesn’t command the same kind of authority over the PC market as they do with the smartphone market. It’s still very much a PC world; interoperability is a concession that needed to make there in order to stay competitive. They don’t need to make concessions with the iPhone.
> Further it appears that Apple was the main designer of USB-C.
And you’re basing this on what, exactly? Neither Apple nor the USB-IF has made any such claims. If you have more information to provide, then I’m all ears. Regardless, whether or not Apple designed the USB-C connector says nothing about their intentions to use it on the iPhone.
> Apple can still innovate with USB, as an example Apple started providing 2.1A USB power and it is not rather ubiquitous.
That’s not innovation, it is just adherence to spec. Specifically, the USB Battery Charging 1.2 Compliance Plan, and Apple was hardly first to implement something like this.
> As for poor USB cables there are many poor lightning cables available, I have had some.
“Poor” is a poor descriptor, but then again, this is just an anecdote. Sure, there are crappy Lightning cables out there, but if they are MFi-certified, you can generally count on them adhering to the Apple’s specifications, which are far more rigorous than USB-IF’s specs for USB-C.
Sorry but audio is analog, there is nothing wrong with an analog connector. On top of that the rumor is that the lightning port will (and currently does) supply analog audio.
They’re bragging about an analog relic from what? the 1890’s?
“The phone connector was invented for use in telephone switchboards in the 19th century and is still widely used.” (Wikipedia)
This is not surprising, but comparing the iPhone 6s Plus to the Note 7 doesn’t really make sense. The Note is specifically aimed at the business user, not the consumer. That being the case, its specs are much higher end than the iPhone. A better comparison is the 6s vs. the Galaxy S7.
Samsung doesn’t really sell many of the Notes.
iPhones still sell much better to the business user than Samsung. Go ask IBM, internally, they have about 70+% of their employees using Phones and they are seeing a drop in Android users.
Samsung has been attempting to appeal to business users with the Note for years with little success. The majority of Note users are under the age of 25 with an income under $10,000. In other words, high schoolers and college kids.
Because sheep will flock to whatever apple spits out. Fact!
And fanboys will waste their breath complaining about other people’s preferences. Fact.
Removing the headphone jack is a good move, selling the upcoming iphone with lightning connector headphones is dumb. Apple, sell the iphone with bluetooth earbuds! At least that way i’ll be able to charge the phone and listen to music!
And when the bluetooth earbuds need to be charged, then what? Also earbuds are neither an answer for everybody or every situation.