Samsung's newfound self-awareness is leading to better products and a brighter future
"I can not be the best public speaker," said Korean Samsung JK Shin born in heavily accented English. "It's because my mother tongue is engineering." These words endearing modesty, made during the recent Galaxy S6 launching ceremony, the new encapsulate the humble identity that Samsung is built for himself. All chaebol in Korea responded to the collapse of mobile sales over the past year with a tour-reaching reforms, the most notable among which is the way he now communicates with its customers.
No more live orchestras and grand theatricality old product presentations. The new Samsung gets to the point quickly and delivers a clear and concise message. Want amazing photos in all circumstances? Here are a pair of cameras with f / 1.9 lens and lightning fast operation. You want performance, energy efficiency, and the best possible display? Here are the first 14nm processor in the world, without charging multi-standard wire, and the most dense pixel display ever put on a smartphone.
"Samsung has finally connects its overwhelming specifications in the real world"
In the place of strained metaphors quad-core processors are related to four wind turbines, Samsung now appeal to consumers with facts and figures that count. The Galaxy S6 recharge twice as fast as the metal of the iPhone 6. Samsung is "50 percent stronger" as used in other phones and "will not bend." These are the things that people care to know. Instead of trying to sell us on the features and overworked gadgets, Samsung has returned to the most reliable strategy to meet the needs that we have. This is the same approach as Apple took when it expanded its iPhone range last year with some long overdue major appliances, and the reward for this movement has been the biggest sales success in the company's history.
In the Galaxy S6 launch event, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the litany of Samsung melt menu options, leaving only the most essential things. Samsung is embracing Material Design Google - and its underlying philosophy of clarity and simplicity - streamlining its software customizations and additions. Do I hope that the next Galaxy experience will also clean and consistent impressive as a pure race Lollipop Nexus Google Android? No, but consider how far Samsung has just the time that Google had to call to ask that restrict its excessive settings (and too ugly) to the Android interface.
"Half of the presentation Galaxy S6 was done by women without dumbing anything"
The new Samsung also shows a greater sensitivity to criticism, with the first two witnesses at the event being S6 women. Unless JK Shin, who as CEO Samsung Mobile almost had to be there, S6 launching Samsung was divided equally between male and female presenters. It took two full years after the fiasco that gender was the launch Galaxy S4, but the Korean company finally gestures toward neutral. Women on stage in Barcelona were not mere accessories with a pulse. They put much technical information as their male counterparts, and their attire was professional rather than provocative.
At some point between the start of last year's Galaxy S5 and S6 of this year, Samsung hired someone with taste. It was great to watch the company that had grown up with his famous cheap plastic phones turning to better design and materials. The best Galaxy Note update owes much of its appeal to the simple but effective a new metal frame. The Galaxy Alpha was a short feature but universally appreciated that looked and felt better than anything Samsung had happened before. And now the Galaxy S6 happens, and that's the most exciting smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S II. All this was accompanied by a marketing campaign that is smart and savvy and actually makes me want to learn more about Samsung products.
"There are traces that remain of the former Samsung, but the 2015 version is a dramatic upgrade in most respects"
I like the new Samsung, and I like the direction it is headed. That being said, fragments remain of the former. Galaxy Edge S6, as noted edge, exists mainly to show the technical leadership Samsung - which is also the primary motivation why the new phones have a ridiculous Quad HD resolution. Regular Galaxy S6 design looks like it took a lot of inspiration from the latest iPhone from Apple, doing little to quell the persistent criticism of Samsung is Apple's most successful imitation of the world.
Samsung is still far from perfect, but the measures it has taken to rejuvenate and reform have been for the better. The company could not stop the release smartwatches until 2014 opted against the introduction of yet another at Mobile World Congress, dedicating the show to its new smartphone very important. Smartwatch next Samsung will be a device "perfect", signaling a new focus on quality rather than quantity of products. Of course, you can read that as a cynical gesture to wait to copy Apple Watch, but I'm willing to believe that there are people who work within that Samsung finally realizing the folly of his old carpet bombing efforts .
"Design is more than just a buzzword"
Failing giants such as Samsung was last year, did not last long. Either they adapt and improve or, because of their size, crashing to the ground in the epic mode. Everything I've seen from Samsung in the last few months shows a society determined to avoid the latter fate.
"Some companies have distinguished themselves through design," JK Shin recognizes a thoughtful before unveiling the latest Samsung phones. "Others in practice. But people want both." Finally, after years of iteration on an unpleasant but profitable Galaxy design, Samsung has been moved to act on the idealistic slogans likes to endorse. The old silly slogans like "designed for humans" were replaced by the single "is next now." It is a slogan that speaks to the urgency of the situation from Samsung and the immediacy of its further improvement.