Read a marketing book it will explain why this form of marketing works. The leader of the industry is always attached by the competition. Sure apple has lost share but lots of people still think apple shits gold bars, so they are seen as the leader. Read some of the articles about the iphone 6 and you will see how some of the media is even brainwashed.

Best example of this style marketing is Coke vs Pepsi. Go on youtube and watch some Pepsi ads.

I dont like either, but their fights are fun to watch. I have an Ascend P6, amazing phone.

There is jealousy in it....Samsung are jealous of the all round WOW factor of Apple products compared to Samsung products in the smartphone sector. No matter what Samsung does...flings Gbs of extra memory, double the number of cores in the processors, larger screens, larger resolutions, better all round specs (on paper), but what they don't get is the all round experience of using an iPhone by the normal consumer. Add to that, they are quite a bit away with the build quality yet are pricing their hardware at the same level as iPhones.

Samsung just flood the market with a ridiculous range of versions of smartphones, as IMHO they just want to be the market leader with smartphones, but rather than releasing version with not only different processors and screen sizes to cater for all and sundry, they should just make a damn amazing phone with excellent build quality along with a user experience to suit.

At the end of the day, Apple has made themselves the smartphone company to look at for new innovations and it seems that no matter what Samsung do they just can't stop people from turning their heads away from them and towards Apple products. Also, Samsung has always been a middle of the road company for products in general and it's only been in the last 5 years that they have pushed up to near the top...but for some like me, they will always be a decent quality manufacturer and no more....so perception plays a part.

Because Samsung is smart?

Apple is the industry standard, that's why. You can deny this but it's the truth: When every phone maker compares their phone to Apple's you know Apple sets the standards. It's a common marketing strategy, like " Sega does what Nintendon't" or Apple's own "Mac vs PC" commercials. Thus, if Samsung's phone is better in some aspects they can compare it to Apple to show the public they are better than the industry standard. Also, iPhones have the highest consumer satisfaction ratings (crazy, huh? People actually like their iPhones! Must be millions of sheep out there!) so telling customers "we are better than the phone you like best" is a good way to go.

I like the trolling in this thread :P Samsung and HTC make great phones but so does Apple. It is not behind the competition at all. The screens, cameras and internals have been called the best in any smartphone in many reviews. You can't just look at raw numbers - or did anyone ever "upgrade" from a 42" to a 32" TV because the 32" has a higher PPI? Pixel per inch doesn't tell you how good a screen is - brightness, contrast, color accuracy are way more important after a certain threshold has been reached. Same goes for MP in a camera (most $500 cameras out there have less MP than some smartphones - do you think they are worse?) and CPU speed. Clock speeds in Intel CPU's have hardly changed since Core 2 Duo days! Does that mean our 2014 CPU's are as weak as our 2009 ones?

Because Apple's marketing is about as effective as Activision ala CoD.

Or maybe, just maybe, because they make good products? Just because someone buys a different product than you do that doesn't make them stupid or brainwashed. The real question is: Why do leagues of people feel the need to attack products (!) of a certain company all the time? DId those products harm you in any way? 

This is a videogaming forum! People here post backlogs of dozens of games which they bought at full price and never opened! Discuss their dream release schedule for 2015 and beyond and talk endlessly about why console X ist better than console Y! Are we really in a position to judge the buying decisions of other people? 

Never said they were stupid or brainwashed, you did.  But, we can go with that, if you prefer.  I mean, is all effective advertising brainwashing of the stupid?  Or is it just....great advertising?

You're right, I'm sorry. Let me rephrase it: Do you think people only buy Apple products because of the marketing? Don't you think people buy them because they are good products? People always bring Apple's marketing up but that implies customers have no idea what they want, they just watch a commercial and go for that product. I think this is wrong. I think customers are intelligent and know what they want. And I think they buy Apple products because these products are well designed and worth their money.

And just to make this clear: I like Samsung's phones and I like HTC phones. I think there's a number of premium smartphones which are very close to each other in quality. I just think the iPhone is part of that.

microsoft while they were briefly breaking even with the competition gave it in truck loads so I'm sure they will be well able to take it now that normality has been restored.