New Apple products almost always make a splash (both positive and negative) – often they are discussed only by journalists and ordinary forum participants, but sometimes it even comes to the fact that its direct competitors make fun of the company. Experience has shown that jokes from other corporations towards Apple were not always appropriate – after a while, competitors copied those controversial decisions that they themselves ridiculed in the past. This article mentions two of the most significant such cases.
Rejection of the audio headphone jack: Samsung, Google, OnePlus
In 2016, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were released without a separate 3.5 mm headphone jack – Apple limited the owners of these smartphones to use either Bluetooth headphones or models with a Lightning connector (it is also used for charging, which made it impossible to connect gadget to the outlet and listen to music through wired headphones at the same time). It was assumed that the company did this in order to free up space in the case for installing additional components or a larger battery.
Be that as it may, such a decision was criticized from both ordinary commentators, reviewers, and other companies. Some of the latter began to make fun of Apple for such a decision, emphasizing that their smartphones have a separate headphone jack, and therefore they are “full-fledged” devices.
🔴 Samsung
Perhaps most of all the new iPhones and Apple as a whole made fun of Samsung – for a couple of years, in advertisements for its flagships Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9, the company emphasized that they have an audio jack. But in 2019, the Galaxy Note 10 series was introduced … without a headphone jack, and the company began removing old commercials that ridiculed the iPhone for this “flaw.” In an interview with The Verge, a Samsung representative said that the company abandoned the 3.5 mm jack in order to increase the battery by 2-3% (100 mAh) and “improve tactile feedback”, because the audio jack in the smartphone was cavity (he did not say anything about the influence of the cavity of the stylus compartment on tactile feedback).
In the year the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were released, Google introduced its first models of the new Pixel series after the Nexus – naturally, marketers took advantage of the situation and, with an explicit reference, wrote in one of the commercials “3.5 mm headphone jack satisfyingly not new” interpreted as “3.5 mm headphone jack – not an advantage, but a reality”). Ironically, the next year, with the release of the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, the company ditched the audio jack. What’s more, Google started selling 3.5mm to USB-C adapters for $ 20 – much more than Apple ($ 9).
🔴 OnePlus
In June 2017, almost a year after the announcement of the iPhone 7 series, OnePlus 5 was presented. During the presentation, the company addressed the audience:
At the bottom, you will see that we have ditched the 3.5mm headphone jack. The elegance of the entire design increased instantly. Who needs a headphone jack anyway? That’s what Bluetooth is for, right? Just kidding, of course, the OnePlus 5 has a headphone jack.
This irony looked odd even at the presentation itself, because the design of the OnePlus 5 was clearly copied from the iPhone 7 Plus. But that ridicule began to look even more awkward in the future, when in 2018 the company ditched the audio jack on the OnePlus 6T.
Rejection of the power supply included: Samsung and Xiaomi
The iPhone 12 series presented in 2020 turned out to be quite similar to the previous one, but it still brought an innovation to the market of technologies – the rejection of the power supply in the kit (both in new and old models). Apple motivated this by concern for the environment, because, in its opinion, most people have charging adapters from previous and other devices, and they do not really need a new one – by abandoning it, the company reduces carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of components and reduces production minerals due to significantly smaller packaging. Apple fans have even figured that the company has reduced the price of the iPhone for the same money that the power supply costs (of course, this is just a guess). It’s worth noting that the company has reduced the price of separately sold adapters.
But, according to personal observations, most people still saw this as malicious intent – the company allegedly wants to “save the budget, not the planet” (this is how the authoritative foreign edition of The Verge described Apple’s decision). And many publications and experts reproached the corporation for not doing any more significant actions for the sake of the environment – up to and including abandoning the proprietary Lightning connector in favor of USB-C. Statistics show that after Apple refused from complete power supplies, their sales grew even in Russia by 884%. Of course, Apple’s competitors could not help but take advantage of such a curious case.
🔴 Samsung
Shortly after the iPhone 13 series was announced and Apple’s “greener” announcement, Samsung Caribbean posted an image of the branded power adapter on its Facebook page with the caption “Included with your Galaxy”. But the irony prevailed again – less than six months later, the company introduced the Galaxy S21 series without a power supply in the kit.
🔴 Xiaomi
“Hello, # MiFans, today we dreamed about our smartphones without a charger in the box 😰😰😰
Fortunately, it was just a nightmare. “
– such a message appeared on the official account of the Spanish division of Xiaomi on Twitter and is still not deleted.
In addition to the Spanish account, the international profile of Xiaomi also made fun of Apple in the same Twitter – he published a video demonstrating the power supply included with the Mi 10T Pro and wrote that the company does not remove anything from the box of this smartphone. But less than 2 months later, Xiaomi introduced the Mi 11 series without the included power adapter. In fairness, it should be noted that the company, apparently, eventually abandoned its idea after the dissatisfaction of the fans – first in the local market it started to offer two versions of the Mi 11 package (with and without charging, but for the same price), and then, it seems, began to supply to the international market only a variation with a power supply included.
Don’t worry, we didn’t leave anything out of the box with the #Mi10TPro. pic.twitter.com/ToqIjfVEQX
— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) October 14, 2020
Looks like the next will be a branded napkin for the screen
After the October presentation in 2021, Apple’s branded napkin made of a soft non-abrasive screen wiper went on sale, suitable for the display of any modern company gadget (even glass with nano texture, like in the Pro Display XDR monitor). Outwardly, it differs little from ordinary screen wipes, but it has a faintly noticeable corporation logo and costs significantly more than most analogues – $ 20 in the USA or 1,990 rubles in Russia.
Such a high price has spawned many memes on the net from ordinary users.
Disassembly portal iFixit even did a comical disassembly of the napkin, giving it a 0 out of 10 on the maintainability scale.
Be that as it may, Apple’s branded napkin seems to be in demand: when ordered on the official website in some countries, its delivery time was 12 weeks. Even at the time of this writing (end of November), the waiting time for new items in Russia indicates 6-8 weeks.
🔴 Samsung
Given the ironic experience of the past, many companies have refrained from making shortsighted jokes about Apple – but not Samsung, it seems. For members of her community from Germany, she organized a campaign – she will give the first 1,000 people a free gift with a branded napkin for cleaning the screen. This offer looks rather strange, since the number of free accessories is very limited. Apparently, it was just a joke with a reference to Apple.
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