By Natasha Abbensetts
Samsung and Apple released their new smartphone devices this year, the iPhone 7 and the Galaxy Note 7, with each brand showcasing distinct new features.
The iPhone upgraded their camera quality and display, extended the battery life and storage capacity, added stereo speakers, and made their phone water and dust resistant. The Note 7 includes an S pen which doubles as a magnifying glass and a glance, eye adjuster to dark and light, and added browser extensions. This phone is also water resistant like the Galaxy S5, S7, and S7 Edge, something not seen in any of the Galaxy Note phones.
“Samsung and Apple are two different entities. People assume because they are smartphones and because the smartphone realm is so competitive they are in fact competitors,” said Nandram Shiwmangal, a current employee at Time Warner Cable.
Samsung lost sales after many Galaxy Note 7 customers reported their battery setting fire and exploding. There has been a major recall and everyone who owns a Galaxy Note 7 will have their device replaced in due time.
Javed Fray, a former Queensborough Computer Science major, said Samsung might have beaten its competitors if the design flaws hadn’t emerged as an international news story.
“Samsung would have been the best, but they screwed up the battery,” said Fray. “There are other phones out there that are a lot cheaper with better specs. Samsung and Apple are pretty much equal.”
iPhone 7 sales have been successful. But according to Samsung’s website, the Galaxy 7 battery complications virtually wiped out profits at its high-profile mobile communications division during the third quarter.
According to The New York Times, the division posted an operating profit of $87.9 million. By contrast, a year ago the division posted a profit of about $2.1 billion.
In October, Samsung stopped all distribution of the Galaxy 7 due to complications.
“I just bought a Note 7 and I plan on keeping it for a while before trading it in,” said Julia Kim, 19, an after-school counselor, from Bayside. “I just hope it doesn’t blow up on me.”
Apple recently released AirPods, which are bluetooth wireless headphones. They are priced at $159.00 each and are compatible with most Apple devices.
“I used to have an Android for five years because of its customization [even though] the battery would begin to fail and I would have to buy a new one,” said Vishal Joeloemsingh, an employee at JFK. “The iPhone [limits] how you can customize your phone.”
He adds that that Androids make it easier to download music and other applications.
Shiwmangal, the computer networking expert said he thinks the phones are for two completely different crowds.
“Samsung is geared toward a tech crowd,” he said. “These phones can be customized to the user’s desired preferences. Apple on the other hand has a much simpler interface. This interface can easily be adapted to, and leaves little room for error. Samsung had a battery problem with the Note 7. While this may have cause Samsung to lose billion in stock prices and provoked fear within its users.”
