If we were to turn the clock back a few years ago, smartphone hardware was still on the rise. We started seeing dual-core devices, quad-core devices, HD displays became Full HD displays, and now we’re look at octa-core and QHD devices. So how do OEMs compete if everything these days seems to be identical?
Sure, hardware design is one way to stand out, as we saw in the HTC One M8 which is a beautiful handset. Another way is to include exclusive software on devices that would make it a compelling enough reason for people to purchase said products. Unfortunately it seems that despite Samsung’s best intentions at creating apps for its users, they aren’t exactly used much.
This is according to a recent study (via The Wall Street Journal) which tracked over 250 million users in the US who used either the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S4. As you can see in the graph above, the most popular app used on the phone was Facebook followed by Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and so on. However when it comes to exclusive Samsung apps, it seems that Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4 users don’t spend too much time on them.
This is a good indication to Samsung that they should probably improve on their apps to make it essential for its users. Either that or dump it entirely and focus on the overall experience. At the same time we expect there are users out there who don’t use said apps mainly because they have removed them, or flashed a custom ROM like CyanogenMod in order to get rid of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.
In any case this is pretty telling and hopefully Samsung will do something about it. In the meantime are you guys in agreement with the study? Do you find that you aren’t really using the bundled Samsung apps as much as Samsung would like you to?