Smartphone war

Samsung challenges Apple’s dominance

It is a war of innovative ideas and designs between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics. It appears to be a life or death struggle between the two smartphone makers. No one knows who will win, but many hope that the two rivals will survive the ever-escalating competition in a way that benefits consumers.

There is little dispute that Apple is the pioneer in the smartphone market. In fact, the war began last November, when the company launched its 3G iPhone. On Monday, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the latest iPhone 4 model in San Francisco, triggering a second round of the battle over the rapidly changing IT gadget.

It is no coincidence that Samsung Electronics of Korea made public its new smartphone called Galaxy S in Seoul only hours after Jobs' presentation of the new iPhone. Samsung, the world's second-largest mobile phone producer, plans to sell the Galaxy S via 100 carriers across the globe. It has the ambition to beat out Apple to dominate the lucrative world market.

Apple is also aggressive in marketing its product. Its Internet homepage starts with an ad featuring the new handset and carrying the message: ``iPhone 4. This changes everything. Again." Jobs said, ``I think Apple knows how to teach people about things they don't yet know they want."

It is interesting to compare iPhone 4 with Galaxy S. In appearance, the two products resemble each other. The new iPhone is 9.33 millimeters thick, becoming the thinnest phone in the world. Galaxy is 9.9 millimeters thick. But the two handsets differ in many ways as they adopt different software and application.

Apple, which is second to none in software, boasts of the improved hardware of the iPhone 4. The new handset uses Apple's own operating system, while Samgsung's Galaxy S adopts the Google-powered Android operating platform. Apple is stronger in content than Samsung.

And Apple's AppStore is much more competitive than the Android Market employed by Samsung. AppStore offers more than 200,000 applications, while Android has only 40,000. The market consensus is that Apple's iPhone still has a competitive edge over Samsung's Galaxy S.

But success or failure depends on each firm's ability to produce a synergy effect by systematically putting together software, hardware and content in cooperation with mobile service providers. In the Korean market, KT provides services for the iPhone products, while SK Telecom works for the Galaxy smartphones.

In this regard, Korea is now providing a battleground for the new products of the two handset producers. In order to get more ammunition in the fight against Apple, Samsung has teamed up with Google and SK Telecom.

It remains to be seen whether Samsung, the world's No. 5 smartphone maker with about 3 percent of the global market share, will wage a successful campaign against top manufacture Apple. Samsung must strengthen its competitiveness by developing better software programs and content. Most of all, the company should make every effort to better meet the needs of its customers.