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Apple answers Galaxy S4 launch with new iPhone campaign

New page on Apple's site provides a laundry list of things that supposedly set the iPhone apart. Is the company feeling the heat from Samsung?

Edward Moyer Senior Editor
Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.
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  • Ed was a member of the CNET crew that won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for general excellence online. He's also edited pieces that've nabbed prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists and others.
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Edward Moyer
2 min read
Apple

Samsung's just-launched Galaxy S4 is nothing special -- it's simply another member of the wannabe-iPhone crowd. At least that's what Apple would have you believe by way of a new marketing effort for its storied handset.

"There's iPhone. And then there's everything else." reads the headline on a Web page added to Apple's site today -- two days after Samsung trotted out the S4 during a splashy (and, to some, rather puzzling) event at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

The Apple Web page -- reachable by way of a button on the Apple home page and an e-mail sent to customers -- amounts to a scrollable laundry list of the things that supposedly place the iPhone above the competition. And the list may well have been influenced by Samsung's new gadget. Among other things, the rundown:

  • Seems to take a potshot at what some have called the Galaxy line's "plastic-y" feel, saying that with the iPhone, "Every detail and every material -- particularly the sleek aluminum enclosure -- has been meticulously considered and refined."
  • Touts the iPhone's Retina display. Samsung's smartphones have been dinged in the past for oversaturated, candied colors (though at least one observer says the S4 is a different animal in this regard).
  • Takes a swipe at "other smartphones" that, while discussing camera quality "simply tout large amounts of megapixels" (the iPhone's shooter -- "the world's most popular," Apple claims -- is 8 megapixels; the S4's is 13).
  • Trumpets the number of apps available for the iPhone, saying that the iOS operating system is "the platform for over 800,000 apps that let your iPhone do even more." If nothing else, the S4 is jammed full of new software features.

Is the new Web page a sign that Apple is sweating a bit when it comes to how phone buyers will answer the question "Does the S4 make the iPhone 5 look lame?" We'll let you be the judge of that. As for the S4's features, check out CNET Reviews' FAQ and Editors' Take on the device.