Apple should copy from Samsung

The Innovation from Samsung that needs to be copied

[A republish from my LinkedIn post in 2014]

Apple fans are quiet enthusiastic in their (sometimes blind) following of Apple. In this post I suggest the mantle is passing and Apple has its task cut out.

A historical analogy may be IBM in early days of computing which provided integrated hardware and software at robustness and quality that set the gold standard. You did not get fired for buying IBM. However with time the quality gap narrowed, competitors innovated a lot more and faster and the IBM premium faded….Microsoft was one such with a more open approach. Since many other were enhancing the hardware and the extensible Operating system and software it set a new standard. The Mac continued in the tradition of controlled systems. It took to USB late and Apple has been quiet circumspect in adopting new technologies like NFC preferring to be a laggard.

This has had advantages as too open a system leads to variations and some lack of robustness and varying user experience (the infamous Windows blue screen of death) . This has hurt Android. Google now is trying to reduce the variation (Android One) and Apple is opening up. For the first time iphone and ipad users can select third party keyboards and customize aspects of the UI that were given

Apple now carries the cachet IBM used to carry. Its adoption of oversized phones (phablets) has given legitimacy to that Samsung upstart and NFC may also get a boost with Apple Pay. This is good for customers. Competition is always useful in particular . There are several Android features that Apple has borrowed ( Active Notification, Cloud backup & Sync) and improved ( Siri over OK Google) . However competition does not stay still. OK Google (Google Now) is vastly better then Siri for Asian users. The voice recognition is superb and the action very close to intent. Siri falls flat a lot . It has to discover the rest of the World. Apples future growth depends on that.

I am an investor in Apple and love the fact it commands huge margin and has such growth.(Apple fans please keep buying) .

I wish to encourage Apple to shamelessly copy two features from Samsung Note lineup. I use Note 2 smart phone and Note Tab 10.1 2014 edition and they are way ahead of ipad.

And it’s the software and productivity boost that makes it so. .Apple still provides a crisper and smoother experience but these phones are close very close. Difficult to justify Apple premium after you experience the productivity boost. I admit that my usage may not be typical. I am a post PC user. I spend more time with these devices. I want to do more than just consume. I believe this is a large enough segment to matter and will become larger. The phablet emerged to meet needs of users who do much more than just talk and listen to music and share photo so more and more users will want to create. For example I prefer to draw my mind-maps on the tablet .

Mindjet on the touch tablet is far easier and fun compared to desktop.

S pen A digitizer masquerading as stylus

The S pen is not a stylus in the way Steve Jobs thought about it . Its actually a digitizer and pretty good. The digitizer is so good Adobe AutoCad360 shines. Photo artists can do very precise work.The Keyboard can support handwriting input in any application. It takes your input and converts to text. However I am not a big fan of that as a bit slow still but improving and will be natural within 2 years.

I frequently go back and forth with web page designers. Incredibly great to take out the S pen and annotate the web page with exactly the changes needed. Very quick and precise. You can mark up anything and this does not depend on support from the third party application. See an annotation of an article from the FT App. ( I trust their lawyers will not come after me for copyright …) .

The native S Note application has slick features .

You can sketch diagrams, write mathematical equations and have them converted /cleaned up. Does a very good job.I have stopped using paper and takes notes of meeting and things I am studying . Papyrus with S note is a full replacement of paper notebook plus you can embed graphics and screen shots as well. As a bonus your notes and notebooks are backed up on the cloud.

Multi Window

Another feature is multi window support . This needs genuine multitasking OS. IoS has a pseudo multi tasking feature and is being reworked. On a desk top I can open a Powerpoint and review it slide by slide adding comments on a email reply window on the side. This is just not possible on a Tablet. However Samsung Note Tab 10.1 supports this and its very productive. A favorite activity I have is collecting interesting usage of connected devices (IoT) and then updating the IoT forum that TiE runs.

I have dedicated modes where Evernote and browser open up in side by side mode so I can collect items as I browse and then I can curate and post to the IoT community . Another nifty feature pen window lets you open a application like a calculator in a small window. Can use it to do quick checks. Copy contact info is a common one for me.

Aside this is the major failure of Windows 8. Trying to impose the modal window of phones on a desktop.

Multi Window is coming to Android and should make it to iPhone.

A/B Testing at scale

I really appreciate that Samsung has stuck to the Note and iterated with different formats and different features in the software. The S pen applications have benefited from large scale A/B testing across multiple devices and feature set. This again is different from the button down process previously used at Apple . There was little end user input and more “My Way or the Highway” of Steve Jobs…That too is changing .

About time…The cycle of innovation and consumer good is well served …

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Comments [ From LinkedIn ]

1 Cathedral vs Bazzar. One more win for open. Apple to publish research. Now for Amazon. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIw2_jQ6jA

2 Thanks Mr Cook for listening and making the tablet more of a productivity tool. Esp the stencil (pencil) http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/09/apple-debuts-physical-smart-keyboard-case-for-ipad-pro/ Folks at Samsung the early bird is supposes to get the worm….Unfortunately may not be true with the fan following tha Apple has. … let’s see….

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.