phil schiller

Showing 3 posts tagged phil schiller

Schiller Says The "S" Word

Yesterday, I noted the oddities of Phil Schiller’s interview with WSJ on the eve of the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Among them, I noted that he didn’t mention “Samsung” once, but rather only referred to “Android”. But Schiller also apparently spoke with Poornima Gupta of Reuters:

“And that extends to the news we are hearing this week that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumored to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old,” he said. “Customers will have to wait to get an update.”

Schiller pointed to multiple research from third parties that showed that people who have iOS devices actually use them more than people who own Android devices, and more than half of iOS users are using the latest version of the software.

Okay, so he did mention “Samsung” here and actually called out the specific device. But this is even more strange to me. Not only did Schiller attempt to pre-empt the Samsung event by granting a rare media interview, he apparently went on what would be Apple’s equivalent of a media blitz. Two interviews in one day?!

Everything Schiller says, of course, is correct. But this still strikes me as odd and I’m not sure that any positives (maybe changing some public perception about the S4) would outweigh negatives (giving the appearance of Apple being defensive). 

[via @markgurman]

Apple Goes on the Defensive Against Samsung

I’m not sure which is more strange:

1) That Phil Schiller would say anything the day before a big Samsung event.

2) That Phil Schiller would say anything, period.

3) That Schiller doesn’t mention Samsung, but mentions Android.

4) That WSJ sort of throws him under the bus with their headline (and rightfully so, in this case). It’s so rare for this type of interview; normally you only see one that is heavily teed-up to help Apple in some way. The very lede: “Apple Inc. is on the defensive.” — does not help Apple in any way, shape, or form. Good for WSJ.

5) That this article has two authors — Ian Sherr and Jessica E. Lessin — and it’s less than 300 words.

I guess you could argue that Apple is fighting up here, since Android is “winning” the market share battle. But I fail to see how this statement is a smart maneuver. It makes Apple look vulnerable. Weird.