Products and Production
Apple is a company that occurred to be well-known today due to its innovations. It designs, manufactures, and markets “mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players, and sells a variety of related software, services, accessories, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications” (“Annual Report” par. 2).
The company has its facilities in different countries, but the majority of them are located in the US. The majority of the hardware devices are manufactured in Asia by outsourcing partners according to the production commitments. The components are at acceptable prices and meet the Apple’s demands. Only one product is performed at a time.
Samsung also operates in this sphere, but the range of its products is wider than Apple’s. The company works with “visual displays, digital appliances, printing solutions, health and medical equipment, mobile communication, network, memory devices, system LSI and LED” (“Samsung Electronics Annual Report” 9).
The production of the products is also mainly located in Asia even though the company has its facilities worldwide. The company is proud of using the high-volume manufacturing technology. At first Samsung was focused on the creation of new devices but the company focused on the design of components for other organizations with the course of time.
Similar Products
As the companies are both connected with technologies, it is not surprising that they have similar products. Apple iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 are often compared, as well as their predecessors, so they can be considered in regard to different dimensions.
The way the Samsung’s device looks resembles Apple, as it is with the aluminum trim, which was not previously used. The handsets also have similar positions of ports and buttons as well as the speaker. The quality of the iPhone 6 is said to be higher than its competitor has even though both of them have some advantages and disadvantages.
For example, iPhone 6 has the better color accuracy better as well as the front-facing camera. It also wins while comparing the operating system regardless the fact that Samsung improved it greatly. However, S6 is said to have a better screen and faster memory (Parker par. 9).
The similarities between the products make many people wonder whether it was right in ethical point of view to create a product with resembles the one designed by the competitor organization. The issue was so obvious that Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung. Regarding this aspect, Samsung failed to think about possible consequences and their influence on the stakeholders.
The company was focused on its profit and did not have enough courage to admit the mistake and create something new. Apple, in its turn, tried to protect its rights, was honest and fair (Salazar par. 6).
Different Products
Apple is also known for its media player known as iPod. The new iPod touch is said to be among the best devices of this category on the market. It has a rather speed processor and access to various apps, which makes the device attractive to the customers.
It resembles iPhone but is smaller and cheaper. The battery is long-lasting, and the front camera makes good flash photos (Segan par. 10). Of course, it does not substitute the phone but has lots of other advantages. iPod touch is said to be good for kids, which may be not right as they are mainly using it just to play, and such claim can also raise conflicts in the families.
Samsung manufactures a wide range of devices including TVs. Its Smart TVs entered the market recently. They allow the customers refer to different apps, enjoy new smart OS and UHD videos. The TVs have a good quality picture and remotes.
They have many smartphone features, camera and respond to voice commands (Demers par. 14). Still, Smart TVs also have some disadvantages, for example, the problems can be faced when connecting to WiFi. The customers are warned about this now, which proves that the company is fair.
However, the issue with the privacy still concerns many people, as it is much more serious. Samsung knew that the device collected the information about its owner but did not inform the general public, which proves that the company does not believe it to be a problem.
Marketing
Apple’s marketing strategy is based on the original design of the devices. iPhone is improved with the course of time, but its design does not change greatly, which makes the handset recognizable. People buy it because they will be surely associated with a particular population when having such device.
However, when the company tried to implement Apple Music, it failed. This is a new service, which was not earlier presented by Apple and many people still do not know what it is. Thus, the lack of decent advertising caused the failure.
The success of Samsung is thought to be based on its product variation. Numerous devices that can be used in various spheres attract the customers and allow them use the products of their favorite company and not to hesitate when buying something.
Still, when Samsung decided to compete with Apple by the creation of similar products, as it happened with the latest smartphones, it failed. The imitation was so obvious that it caused dissatisfaction of the general public making Samsung just one of the copy-cats.
Works Cited
Annual Report 2014. Web.
Demers, Cedric. Samsung Smart TV Platform 2015 Review. Web.
Parker, Max. Samsung Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6. 2015. Web.
Salazar, Heather. Apple Vs. Samsung. 2014. Web.
Samsung Electronics Annual Report 2014. Web.
Segan, Sarah. Apple iPod Touch. 2015. Web.