Hey Samsung, attacking Apple fans isn't cool

Samsung's been promoting its own products by taking a sly swing at Apple fans. But when tech companies take a pop at consumers -- rather than each other -- it's not cool.

Samsung's Galaxy S3 is less than a week away from being officially unveiled, and as you'd expect, the company's marketing machine is now running at full whack.

As part of that, Samsung released a cryptic teaser trailer earlier this week for its 'next Galaxy', in which it promised owners would "stand out from everyone else", while showing a herd of bleating sheep.

The sheep are poorly digitised (seriously Samsung, how hard would it have been to find and film a farm?), but the target of the snide jab is easily discernible -- especially when you take the company's previous Apple fan-baiting ads into account.

I'll admit, that first advert with the iPhone fans in a queue made me chuckle. I consider myself to be pretty familiar with the ins and outs of Apple-queuing fandom, and a few lines from that ad were pretty well observed. But it's getting wearisome.

Tech companies are always taking chunks out of each other, whether it's Apple's insistence that other phones suffer from antennae-grip issues, or Virgin Media complaining about BT's 'unbeatable' broadband claims. But turning that venom and mountain of marketing monkey on consumers is wholly crass.

Shoppers should be able to buy any phone they like without being mocked by a multinational corporation. Indeed, let's not forget that this company, which paints itself as the trendy alternative, is actually a staggeringly-massive global entity that also makes tanks and owns a theme park, and sold more phones than Apple in the last three months. A scrappy underdog Samsung ain't.

I'm not the only one left with a bad taste in my mouth. Fellow tech journalist Chris Davies has written on the subject, aptly branding Samsung's approach the "lazy way out", while one CNET UK commenter notes, "If Samsung wants people to switch from Apple to them should it really be mocking them?"

Despite this promising backlash, it pains me to see many commenters and YouTube viewers falling for Samsung's marketing ploy. Let's get some perspective, folks -- all tech companies are thirsty for your cash, and while it's fun to discuss these gadget giants in anthropomorphic terms, none of them is your buddy.

In the same way, that bloke forking over £500 for an iPhone isn't your enemy. He's a fellow gadget enthusiast, and like you he's trying to buy a gadget that offers the best value for his money.

Don't let tech companies make this personal, because for them it's strictly business.