The Verge article: Carriers are biggest threat to phone innovation - Galaxy S III General (US Carriers)

I read this article the other day, and found it to be excellent and right on the money. Thought others here would be interested.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/31...re-the-biggest-threat-to-innovation-editorial

Related

Lol Gizmodo

Just had to post this:
http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/7785/screenshot2010040119234.jpg
It's actually true too. Go to www.gizmodo.com - literally *every* story is on the iPad. Jesus Christ. This is worse than boygeniusreport. If you ever needed to find out whether gizmodo was gaga for Apple, well there you go.
When's the Google tablet coming out? Looking for a real device... And for the "official" Google tablet -- Android or Chrome OS?
[Edit]: I just noticed the ad in the top right of the picture above. Muwhahahaha
Google tablet will run Chrome OS.
this exactly what i was thinking. i hate apple
Im a regular at that site and yeah 80% of their tech news are related to Apple. Its ridiculous . And wait til their iPad hype is over....their stupid new iPhone rumor posts will be next.
Thank god for:
http://gizmodo.com/tag/not:apple/
This also works:
http://gizmodo.com/tag/not:advertisement/
Gawker media is about the quality of super market tabloids. Lifehacker is the only website worth reading. Only problem is occasionally Lifehacker posts a Gizmodo article and I'll be reading my RSS feeds and get half way through what I thought was Lifehacker and I'll think "holy **** did a junior high student write this" and I'll scroll up and its Jesus Diaz EVERYTIME.
Most of these tech blogs are good for keeping up with release dates of devices, the rest of it is designed to keep people clicking & serving ads
crachel said:
Gawker media is about the quality of super market tabloids. Lifehacker is the only website worth reading. Only problem is occasionally Lifehacker posts a Gizmodo article and I'll be reading my RSS feeds and get half way through what I thought was Lifehacker and I'll think "holy **** did a junior high student right this" and I'll scroll up and its Jesus Diaz EVERYTIME.
Most of these tech blogs are good for keeping up with release dates of devices, the rest of it is designed to keep people clicking & serving ads
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I laughed when I read "holy **** did a junior high student right this"....
CLASSIC
Noticed the surge of iPad articles.... all over the godamn place.
josefcrist said:
this exactly what i was thinking. i hate apple
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I don't mind Apple products. OS X really is pretty nice. Their hardware is generally pretty good. It may not be competitive with budget equipment, but they never pretended to be. I like my wife's iphone, just not as much as I like my Nexus One.
I just don't like Steve jobs or the fanboys who stand in line for an opportunity to rim him. Apple products, though generally pretty good, are not sent from heaven from Steve Almighty, and Steve Almighty is now trying to patent gestures. I've got a gesture for him that he damn sure can't patent. ..|.
Engadget is the same way.
Lucikly you can go to http://www.engadget.com/exclude/apple and see a non-tard view.
The apples on Gizmodo, Engadget, etc. are rottening!

BGR- Bash Google's Reputation

its amazing to see how this website advertise lies about android smartphones and tablets time after time,than "corrects it", after the damage is done just because they are apple fans.
I HOPE THAT GOOGLE WILL DROP A MAJOR LAWSUIT ON THEIR HEAD, SO THE LESSON WILL BE LEARNED.
http://www.bgr.com/2011/03/22/motorola-will-stop-building-xoom-tablets-after-june-report-claims/
Huh? What I miss? XDA is bashing google? Put down the pipe and just walk away..
Sent via EVO
Sirchuk said:
Huh? What I miss? XDA is bashing google? Put down the pipe and just walk away..
Sent via EVO
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BGR- google it, who says anything about xda?
ericizzy1 said:
BGR- google it, who says anything about xda?
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To be fair, the way your post is worded I thought you meant XDA too.
I thought the title was clear.
The whole 'Xoom is dead' rumor reeked of FUD, it's a shame all the major sites picked up on it.
ive almost completely stopped reading BGR because of their blatant hatred of Google and apple fanboyism. Every article Geller writes is so pro apple it makes me want to puke.
His review of the iPad 2 is so biased it might as well have been written by apple.
BGR is a tech news blog site, they deal with a lot of rumors from various sources some sources are better then others.
Typically I like BGR, and yes they have an apple bias. However going into that knowing they have an apple bias makes it easier to sift through the BS.
At least its better then the way Gizmodo is going with their terrible new site design. Gawker sucks anyways, the guy who started Gawker was very resentful of Gizmodos success and lambasted them recently because of it, what a dooche.
Engadget seems to be getting worse as well, what with "The AOL Way" and all (google it), multiple people have quit Engadget due to this very reason. Seems like our choices for good tech blog sites are getting worse and worse. Sad.
Anybody reccomend a tech news blog site? I like Android central, but like Gizmodo and Endgaget they are also owned by a blogging collective, which seems to be a bad thing. Time will tell.
This is pretty standard for tech blogs. They report on their sources and tips that they think they can trust, and if new information comes out, they update the story.
I don't see why you're mad for them posting a story based on rumor, which is clearly stated in the post, then correcting it when they prove it wrong lol.
You're acting like they raped your child or something.
I didn't like the BGR story simply because it was poorly reported. The numbers they list don't add up (compare the alleged production numbers compared to the 2011 projected shipping numbers). But then again, I've often lamented the poor state of tech "journalism," and it certainly does seem to be getting worse.
I agree that tech journalism is suffering and hate it when one website states a rumor I see ten more show up in my RSS feed. Engadget seems to going through a transition phase and that was my favorite website. Android central I will say has become the number one source in android over the last couple of months. Android and me is a joke and androidguys just doesn't stay as up to date as they should. Would frequent phandroid more but they refuse to make their forums on tapatalk.
Sent from my Xoom
martonikaj said:
This is pretty standard for tech blogs. They report on their sources and tips that they think they can trust, and if new information comes out, they update the story.
I don't see why you're mad for them posting a story based on rumor, which is clearly stated in the post, then correcting it when they prove it wrong lol.
You're acting like they raped your child or something.
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Hahaha so true. Although the article itself definitely did REEK of BS -- so seeing it get updated with a "this is not accurate" was obviously on its way at some point.
I use Phandroid.
Which isn't biased at all, right?
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
3devious said:
Which isn't biased at all, right?
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
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haha i knew someone would point it out
3devious said:
Which isn't biased at all, right?
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
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Are you joking? Of course its biased, its a frieking blog about android news... you can't be this obtuse. Oh wait, you have posted 4 times, it all makes sense now...
Planet Android, Android Police, Best Android App review (even though this one is just all about apps), Android community...They're all in my rss feeds. How bout TechCrunch and Cnet? Anybody has a disagreement with those 2 ?
wang1404 said:
Planet Android, Android Police, Best Android App review (even though this one is just all about apps), Android community...They're all in my rss feeds. How bout TechCrunch and Cnet? Anybody has a disagreement with those 2 ?
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Cnet isn't bad, however Tech Crunch is grarbage, another AOL owned site, not that great even before "The AOL Way", can only get worse from here on out.
martonikaj said:
This is pretty standard for tech blogs. They report on their sources and tips that they think they can trust, and if new information comes out, they update the story.
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Really? So it would be OK to write the following:
According to an unconfirmed report, martonikaj is set to be arrested for raping a child sometime in April and his wife will file for divorce after June. XDA watcher DigiDev cites anonymous sources from within martonikaj's family claiming that he may have raped as many as 10 children, but plans to curtail rapes during the first quarter of 2011. The cause of the alleged drop in rapes is unclear, though the website’s sources speculate that martonikaj may be uncertain about his position within the famiy and will thus slow-down his abuse. DigiDev also speculates that martonikaj may instead turn to killing stray dogs, which is the more likely scenario considering martonikaj's previous comments with regard to the SPCA. Total rapes in the area in 2011 are expected to be around 30 - 40 the report states.
So long as I post the following a day later?
UPDATE: Following the publication of this post, martonikaj supplied us with a comment via email. He states that DigiDevs’ report is not accurate, and that he does not rape childern.
It doesn't matter that a prospective employer saw the first article, and not the second. Or that people may say "I thought martonikaj was arrested for rape?" for years when seeing him walk down the street. Nope. Nothing wrong with that kind of journalism, huh?
boxmander said:
Are you joking? Of course its biased, its a frieking blog about android news... you can't be this obtuse. Oh wait, you have posted 4 times, it all makes sense now...
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He was being sarcastic, but I guess with your 23 posts you obviously missed that one
ClydeB1 said:
He was being sarcastic, but I guess with your 23 posts you obviously missed that one
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toche, its hard to know who is being snarky or just being dumb. you might be surprised how many android haters come to an android forum and post

Unlocking new smartphone becomes harder Saturday

Unlocking new smartphone becomes harder Saturday. check out the link below for article about a recent ruling by the Library of Congress in the good old USA. my apologies if already posted as searched and could not find.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/25/tech/mobile/smartphone-unlocking-illegal/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
This is just not right !!!
So after reading the article, I sat in my trusty computer chair bewildered. (For the record I live in Australia so this doesn't apply to me.) I am just dumb-founded that a governing body, can turn around to the people that openly support the Android community ( plus windows phone and others, sorry i can't say the fruit one) and just slap them in the face like that.
I for one in some ways am glad I do not live in the US when it comes to down and outright stupid decisions like this one.
Who in their right mind would stop people from IMPROVING on the (most of the time) shoddy MODs/Skins that these carriers put on top of the phones with all of their bloatware and links to their own services no one really even uses, and in some cases can even cripple some of the more useful functions of a smartphone.
Well done congress for not exactly helping the developer community, and for (in the long run) costing people more money by having to fork out more money on a device they shouldn't have too, just so they can help improve the device the carrier has just crippled.
Sorry for the rant, this sort of stuff just anger's me lol.
kapebretoner said:
Unlocking new smartphone becomes harder Saturday. check out the link below for article about a recent ruling by the Library of Congress in the good old USA. my apologies if already posted as searched and could not find.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/25/tech/mobile/smartphone-unlocking-illegal/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
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So much for the land of the free....first online poker and now this....glad I live in Canada.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Merica. Wouldn't be surprised if a certain big company lobbied for this.
I has a sig
Nothing changes. If you can unlock, you can lock.
Let the flashing continue.
It is ridiculous the ammount of power telecoms already have, and they still get more and more. Just sad. They have crappy expensive services (at least where I live), and that's not sufficient, they have to own our phones too.
But I agree with gastonw, we won't stop because of that.
Thread closed before it turns into a mass whinging thread :cyclops:

Gizmodo lovefest

Cool article "It Took Five Years To Make a Beautiful Android Phone"
http://gizmodo.com/5990813/
Now if I can just get it on Verizon.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
I love how people bash this guy in the comments because he states that Android phones have looked ugly and people bought them because they were free on contract.
.. He's completely right. Up until the last year that's exactly how it's been. People wanted iPhones if they could get them. Before the Galaxy S 3 and HTC One X (mostly the GS3) no one walked into a store and said "I WANT THAT ANDROID PHONE" unless you were an Android fan
Nice little article.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
This writer is a joke, anyone who visits gizmodo knows it. Even the apple fans agree he's highly biased and only writes provocative articles for the pageviews.
He's not getting to write as much btw, and he doesn't get to review/ comment on phones or tablets anymore afaik. A lot of the readers complained about him (not only talking about phone related)
Will.1 said:
This writer is a joke, anyone who visits gizmodo knows it. Even the apple fans agree he's highly biased and only writes provocative articles for the pageviews.
He's not getting to write as much btw, and he doesn't get to review/ comment on phones or tablets anymore afaik. A lot of the readers complained about him (not only talking about phone related)
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I didn't really see a problem with this specific article
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
Uh if you weren't aware already, Gizmodo is the ****tiest tech site on the internet. It is all provocative tabloid crap. There's no bias to any company. They just find something they can piss people off with to rack up the views. The fanboys will be angry, and the haters come in droves to rejoice, so the worst of the worst all together in one spot. They've pissed off Apple fans by overblowing antennagate and stealing an iPhone prototype, Blackberry fans by trashing their touchscreen phones and writing obscene rants when they aren't sent a review unit, Nokia fans when they put up deceptive "tests" of the Symbian experience, etc. There was even an epic rant by one of the editors telling its readership to go f--k off because their feelings were being hurt in the comments section, even though they were the biggest trolls of all. They are part of the Gawker network, which is known for stalking people, invading privacy, posting defamatory stories and videos, even celebrity sextapes, the usual tabloid stuff. I stopped reading Gizmodo years ago so am not up to date on any recent shenanigans. I know their founder had a talk recently at last year's SXSW about the need for internet ettiquette. Like Hitler advocating ethnic tolerance. They use to pop up all the time on the first page of Google. Now I can hardly find thme unless I go four or five pages back, if at all. Seems their pissing game collapsed like a ponzi scheme once they went over the limit.
Yea that's the way I feel as well, at least about the Gizmodo part. Ok for some random enjoyable articles but horrible when it comes to giving a good insight on products.
Although i have to disagree with you on Apple, a lot of the writers are/were very heavily biased to the point ppl would trash the comment section and bloggers censored posts they didn't like (kinda funny coming from "the press" if you can call it that). They just made a big deal out of a few non issues with the iphone (not talking about the real problems like antennagate etc) to look like they were being fair to every manufacturer and all but everyone on there knows it's all over apple's junk.
I think they are aware they're not being taken seriously anymore and ppl go to engadget and the likes for product reviews and they are trying to change that.

Guys u have to read this!!

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22166606
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
bgaccord said:
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22166606
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
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I bet every company does that... Samsung may be more since they have lot more to spend than others.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
wow so classy samsung, i had one of their UN46ES7500 led tv and shelled couple thousands on it, it was peice of **** between on/off for no reason to green line down the bottom and the customer no service rude and tell me basically that it is not covered by warranty, thankfully amazon took it back and i bought lg led tv much better.
so yes i would expect they do such a behavior.
sorry if im off topic but i never get samsung phone after that.
---------- Post added at 06:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 AM ----------
oh and that make me feel better for ordering the one being better phone, samsung scared.
Haha! Looks like LG is doing the same thing? Just joking!!!!!!!
iraqgsm said:
wow so classy samsung, i had one of their UN46ES7500 led tv and shelled couple thousands on it, it was peice of **** between on/off for no reason to green line down the bottom and the customer no service rude and tell me basically that it is not covered by warranty, thankfully amazon took it back and i bought lg led tv much better.
so yes i would expect they do such a behavior.
sorry if im off topic but i never get samsung phone after that.
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Click to collapse
Anyways internet savy people, non samsung fanboys and smart people are already aware of this. Eversince this was publicized.
iraqgsm said:
wow so classy samsung, i had one of their UN46ES7500 led tv and shelled couple thousands on it, it was peice of **** between on/off for no reason to green line down the bottom and the customer no service rude and tell me basically that it is not covered by warranty, thankfully amazon took it back and i bought lg led tv much better.
so yes i would expect they do such a behavior.
sorry if im off topic but i never get samsung phone after that.
---------- Post added at 06:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 AM ----------
oh and that make me feel better for ordering the one being better phone, samsung scared.
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OT: samsung led tv is never better than LG's, let alone a sony bravia led tv.
Anyway, about the OP, i guess samsung got insecured by the One. Or should i say it's their natural strategy? Now i know why people called them as 'Shamesung'. Shame on them.
This has already been mentioned, try the One mega threads, it was spoke about in detail there.
bgaccord said:
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22166606
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
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This to me shows that clearly the One is the better phone out of the two because otherwise Samsung wouldn't need to be doing such pathetic things..
Majority of reviews from normal consumers on the one are the highest I have ever seen the. So many 5 star ratings from general users is just unreal!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
bgaccord said:
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22166606
Sent from my HTC6435LVW using xda app-developers app
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haha pathetic!!
For all of Samsung's preaching during their Apple lawsuit about how competition should be kept to the marketplace and the quality of the products, this is pretty ironic.
So they cant boost the sale of the SGS3 / SGS4 any other ways due to them being such Crap handsets, instead they have to put other people down? Wow. . . i know there is competition, but thats just rude!
Crab mentality. "If we (Shamesung) can't beat them (HTC, et al) to the top, we'll just drag them down". Ridiculous.
dobknobby said:
So they cant boost the sale of the SGS3 / SGS4 any other ways due to them being such Crap handsets, instead they have to put other people down? Wow. . . i know there is competition, but thats just rude!
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I wouldn't call them crap handsets, they are far from crap. The S3 is an incredible handset. But the S4 is disappointing to say the least in the sense that it's meant to be a big step up from the S3 but it's not really anything more then an S3+
Calling them crap though is fanboyish and stupid
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 11:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 AM ----------
angeloalonzo01 said:
Crab mentality. "If we (Shamesung) can't beat them (HTC, et al) to the top, we'll just drag them down". Ridiculous.
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Could be worse, they could haven taken apples approach of 'if we can't best them let's legally slap them in hope it causes them to fail'
Tbh Samsung would have had to pay a monumental amount of people to jade the review scores of the HTC One, it is probably one of the best phones to ever be released and it's reviews and heavy demand are proof of that.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Cheap tactics. Glad BBC wrote about it.
It's certainly in mixed-use forums as well. Before and up until shortly after the S4 presentation, Samsung was getting creamed in forums (like the Verge Android section). Very few people defending them, and I should know - I defended my S3 when I felt it was necessary. At some point around the time the One reviews starting coming in, the focus shifted to bashing HTC.
I've never seen anything like it. A complete polar shift.
godofwar424 said:
I wouldn't call them crap handsets, they are far from crap. The S3 is an incredible handset. But the S4 is disappointing to say the least in the sense that it's meant to be a big step up from the S3 but it's not really anything more then an S3+
Calling them crap though is fanboyish and stupid
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 11:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 AM ----------
Could be worse, they could haven taken apples approach of 'if we can't best them let's legally slap them in hope it causes them to fail'
Tbh Samsung would have had to pay a monumental amount of people to jade the review scores of the HTC One, it is probably one of the best phones to ever be released and it's reviews and heavy demand are proof of that.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
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So... do you own a Samsung by Any chance?
I aint a HTC Fanboy, however i do love HTC. I used to like Samsung until the S2 and S3. . . if you have a look at my sig, you can see what samsungs i have owned. . . i called them crap upon personal experiance. . . Its not fanboyish at all. . . that my preferance. . .
I dont troll over the Samsung forums slating them, i dont slate them to anyone else. . . just this time. . . hmm...
Surly Samsung is more since they have lot more to spend than others.There market share is good and there goodwill is stable.
arnolldde said:
Surly Samsung is more since they have lot more to spend than others.There market share is good and there goodwill is stable.
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Huh......what
Seriously, this is the worst thread title I've ever seen on these forums. It reads like spam.
Please update the title to reflect the content of the thread.
The-Last-Hylian said:
This has already been mentioned, try the One mega threads, it was spoke about in detail there.
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And it was a year ago for the SGS3's launch. Here's the detail from the thread that it was discussed in. Using freelancers to promote products virally is risky and a lot of companies don't do it because it's so hard to control. HTC's using viral marketing heavily this year and the same thing could happen to them. In both cases it doesn't mean that Samsung or HTC endorse slamming competitors and most likely the agreements the freelancers sign strictly prohibit it. But the people posting aren't professionals and have no ties to the company their blogging to promote other than a one-time check. No company wants to sell products so badly that they'd intentionally risk their credibility and reputations by instructing their employees or contractors to slam a competitor. In Samsung’s case in TW you’re talking about selling an additional 2MM phone is 2012 when they sold 250MM which is less than 1% of their sales.
jesr said:
There's a huge controversy right know in Taiwan tech forums because of this.
Long story short, Samsung was caught manipulating most popular forums and mass media against Taiwan OEMs through a subsidiary company (http://www.opentide.com.tw). Actions such as flood forums with negative posts, FUD, multiple accounts by the same user ditching on HTC, Acer etc.
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Wow. Pretty distorted representation. What Samsung did and apologized for was using viral and social media and making the opinions expressed by individuals look as if they were personal and not sponsored by Samsung. It was also for the launch of the SGS3 last year. The link you posted contains the 61 page PowerPoint deck prepared by OpenTide, the local marketing company Samsung engaged, explaining the viral campaign and not once in it is a competitor mentioned. It discusses the timing of various local events and the messaging the bloggers should use to hype various features of the SGS3.
The ethics of companies sponsoring viral programs that make the opinions expressed look unsolicited is kind of a grey area. HTC's said they plan on using viral campaigns to promote the One this year so they’re up against the same ethics questions. It's totally possible that some of the individuals posting on behalf of companies go off script and trash competitors but there's a big difference between that and the company sponsoring the program telling them to. Is there anything other than those links you posted that are more current or having anything to do with the One or SGS4?
Here's the action plan from the PowerPoint translated.
Here's a link to the 61 page PPT (in Chinese) if anyone wants to see it.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73155531/S3_Viral Plan_0629.pptx
jesr said:
You can also see a glimps of this controversy
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The only reason this interested me is that it really didn't make a lot of sense. There are 9MM smartphones a year sold in TW. Because HTC, Asus, and Acer are the "home town" teams it wouldn't seem that Samsung being Korean would ever "own" the market. They had 29% of the TW market last year so what would they have to gain by potentially risking their reputation worldwide in a "controversy?" Selling 2MM more devices in TW when they sold 250MM last year?
There's huge risk for any company in using bloggers to represent the company as you lose control of the message and can't prevent individuals from potentially saying things that reflect poorly on you. The same thing happened in Mainland China with a couple of companies. Paying people to say good things about a company or product isn't wrong per se and with social being so important it's done all the time. Do the people we see in TV commercials actually use or care about the products their pitching? But since bloggers are freelancers and don't work for any specific company it's easy for the messaging to get out of control which is what the examples you posted show. Welcome to the 21st century.
HTC and Samsung UK employees dissed each other on Twitter. I guarantee you the employees weren't speaking for HTC or Samsung corporate and were probably reprimanded. Trashing a competitor outwardly reflects as poorly on the trashor as it does on the trashee. And multibillion dollar companies know and respect that.
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And this is pretty good representation of how the Taiwanese feel about non-Taiwanese phone manufacturers. Can you imagine if the head of the U.S. Treasury proclaimed that all U.S. citizens should buy Motorola phones? Manufacturers importing and competing in the U.S. would go nuts. "Free trade" is just that and protecionism isn't an answer to solving the ills of troubled companies or industries.
"HTC’s operations have weakened, impacting Taiwan’s export figures, resulting in 5 successive months of negative growth and seriously affecting Taiwan’s economic growth. In order to stop the decline, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang today (the 10th) called for his fellow countrymen to “Affirm and support HTC, starting with loving and using their mobile phones”. This statement prompted backlash on the internet,*PTT*saw countless posts slammed, criticizing HTC for considering themselves to be a mainland Chinese brand and belittling Taiwan, [with netizens] unable to agree with Shih Yen-shiang’s point of view.Shih Yen-shiang revealed that he and the Vice-Economic Minister both use HTC phones, that the government has a close relationship with HTC, provides assistance, and hopes that everyone will unite in supporting domestic companies. Netizens didn’t show any appreciation, wit some people with angrily digging out HTC chairman Cher Wang’s past statements, pointing to her having said “HTC is an indigenous Chinese brand”, so Taiwanese officials now calling for the masses to support a ‘non-Taiwanese brand’ is truly unpersuasive."​
http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/stor...ent-calls-on-citizens-to-buy-support-htc.html
BarryH_GEG said:
And it was a year ago for the SGS3's launch. Here's the detail from the thread that it was discussed in. Using freelancers to promote products virally is risky and a lot of companies don't do it because it's so hard to control. HTC's using viral marketing heavily this year and the same thing could happen to them. In both cases it doesn't mean that Samsung or HTC endorse slamming competitors and most likely the agreements the freelancers sign strictly prohibit it. But the people posting aren't professionals and have no ties to the company their blogging to promote other than a one-time check. No company wants to sell products so badly that they'd intentionally risk their credibility and reputations by instructing their employees or contractors to slam a competitor. In Samsung’s case in TW you’re talking about selling an additional 2MM phone is 2012 when they sold 250MM which is less than 1% of their sales.
Wow. Pretty distorted representation. What Samsung did and apologized for was using viral and social media and making the opinions expressed by individuals look as if they were personal and not sponsored by Samsung. It was also for the launch of the SGS3 last year. The link you posted contains the 61 page PowerPoint deck prepared by OpenTide, the local marketing company Samsung engaged, explaining the viral campaign and not once in it is a competitor mentioned. It discusses the timing of various local events and the messaging the bloggers should use to hype various features of the SGS3.
The ethics of companies sponsoring viral programs that make the opinions expressed look unsolicited is kind of a grey area. HTC's said they plan on using viral campaigns to promote the One this year so they’re up against the same ethics questions. It's totally possible that some of the individuals posting on behalf of companies go off script and trash competitors but there's a big difference between that and the company sponsoring the program telling them to. Is there anything other than those links you posted that are more current or having anything to do with the One or SGS4?
Here's the action plan from the PowerPoint translated.
Here's a link to the 61 page PPT (in Chinese) if anyone wants to see it.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73155531/S3_Viral Plan_0629.pptx
The only reason this interested me is that it really didn't make a lot of sense. There are 9MM smartphones a year sold in TW. Because HTC, Asus, and Acer are the "home town" teams it wouldn't seem that Samsung being Korean would ever "own" the market. They had 29% of the TW market last year so what would they have to gain by potentially risking their reputation worldwide in a "controversy?" Selling 2MM more devices in TW when they sold 250MM last year?
There's huge risk for any company in using bloggers to represent the company as you lose control of the message and can't prevent individuals from potentially saying things that reflect poorly on you. The same thing happened in Mainland China with a couple of companies. Paying people to say good things about a company or product isn't wrong per se and with social being so important it's done all the time. Do the people we see in TV commercials actually use or care about the products their pitching? But since bloggers are freelancers and don't work for any specific company it's easy for the messaging to get out of control which is what the examples you posted show. Welcome to the 21st century.
HTC and Samsung UK employees dissed each other on Twitter. I guarantee you the employees weren't speaking for HTC or Samsung corporate and were probably reprimanded. Trashing a competitor outwardly reflects as poorly on the trashor as it does on the trashee. And multibillion dollar companies know and respect that.
And this is pretty good representation of how the Taiwanese feel about non-Taiwanese phone manufacturers. Can you imagine if the head of the U.S. Treasury proclaimed that all U.S. citizens should buy Motorola phones? Manufacturers importing and competing in the U.S. would go nuts. "Free trade" is just that and protecionism isn't an answer to solving the ills of troubled companies or industries.
"HTC’s operations have weakened, impacting Taiwan’s export figures, resulting in 5 successive months of negative growth and seriously affecting Taiwan’s economic growth. In order to stop the decline, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang today (the 10th) called for his fellow countrymen to “Affirm and support HTC, starting with loving and using their mobile phones”. This statement prompted backlash on the internet,*PTT*saw countless posts slammed, criticizing HTC for considering themselves to be a mainland Chinese brand and belittling Taiwan, [with netizens] unable to agree with Shih Yen-shiang’s point of view.Shih Yen-shiang revealed that he and the Vice-Economic Minister both use HTC phones, that the government has a close relationship with HTC, provides assistance, and hopes that everyone will unite in supporting domestic companies. Netizens didn’t show any appreciation, wit some people with angrily digging out HTC chairman Cher Wang’s past statements, pointing to her having said “HTC is an indigenous Chinese brand”, so Taiwanese officials now calling for the masses to support a ‘non-Taiwanese brand’ is truly unpersuasive."​
http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/stor...ent-calls-on-citizens-to-buy-support-htc.html
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Well htc They didn't pay student kids to defend their beloved products, btw I never had an htc phone before but I ordered the one and this article is really disturbing as many of the negative reviews or my htc phone broke or dents or whatever made people think twice even myself, but I guess some of what is been said against htc where not true due paid and non paid fanboys.

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