Competition between tech giants such as Samsung and Apple is growing high each day in the fast-paced world of mobile technology. Every new released is always tipped to be a battle for supremacy. Tech reviewers, influencers, and enthusiasts compare and measure up Apple products to Samsung products. The recent reviews have been around the flagship phones, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Apple's iPhone 15, and with the most recent one been around the S24 ultra and the iPhone 16. Beneath that lies a continuing circle of one-upmanship.
Companies race each other in terms of how further their boundaries of innovation can be stretched with new features and technologies being introduced at a relentless pace. Cameras get better, along with processors; displays get brighter and batteries last longer. Every new release is supposed to be better than the one that came before. With all this innovation going on, ever so incessantly, one must wonder: what does it all mean for users?
Few users are bewildered by the very quantity of developments.
Although some people weigh their options, considering every spec, design, and performance factor, others simply follow a trend—everyone jumps on in and gets one of these upcoming "must-have" devices. Brand loyalty turned out to be one of the definitely distinguishing features of today's mobile market. Many users, especially those deeply hooked into Samsung or Apple ecosystems, tend to make decisions not based on functionality per se but on brand allegiance. Hence, often they end up with devices featuring little real improvement over their previous models.
All of this relentless pace of innovation has a downside too: it creates pressure for companies to release new products on a frequent basis despite minimal changes in them. Often, a consumer is sold on small increases in functionality, being convinced that they need the new update in order to keep relevant. This has led to a sort of planned obsolescence, where devices start to feel outdated far more quickly than is necessary, encouraging users to upgrade well before they would normally have done so.
For young people and casual users, this tech race brings issues of its own. The young generation is growing amidst an environment where gadgets are always gemacht to the frontline, and it's easy to flow in that trap, perceiving that the newer, the better. This can arise in instant gratification culture when devices would just be treated as disposable.
After all, this severe competition between companies may be beneficial to users in terms of innovation, but at the same time, it creates an environment of pressure to be blindly loyal to a brand and to consume excessively. We users should turn out to be more critical, learning to distinguish between meaningful innovation on the one hand and marketing hype on the other.