Aug 11th "Official" Release Date?

[Andrew Ruffolo]

My favorite Epic Release Date Rumor comes from my gf and her father who asked the Best Buy Mobile people. The Rep's clueless comment was: "Since we are carrying the Evo, we will not carry the Epic at all" Right, cause they are selling so many Evo's while they sit on backorder.

 

[ZoogieZork]

Ouch, looks like for some reason, Samsung does not care too much about hyping the Galaxy S up (at least in the US). I have yet to see one commercial for it where I live, yet the strange part is, I have only seen one Evo commercial. On the other hand, Droid commercials come up every 2 hours or so. I'm not really following their business plan. Don't they want to sell 10 million or something?

It's a tricky area for Samsung, though. It's easier to market a single specific product with a single specific name. Droid droid droid droid... one name, one easy to remember catchphrase.

It can be argued that "Vibrant", "Captivate", and especially "Epic 4G" are all more compelling names than "Galaxy S", but the problem is that they're all different names, nothing to focus on. While Samsung is trying to get "Galaxy S" burned into the minds of the smartphone-buying public, T-Mobile is (lightly) pushing "Vibrant", AT&T is (even more lightly) pushing "Captivate"... I fear that only folks like us hanging around smartphone sites will make the connection.

I want to be proven wrong though, and a clever marketing campaign can overcome all of these difficulties. Samsung could highlight the fact that whatever your carrier, you can get the phone, all carriers are equal (some carriers are more equal than others of course ). They can only do that though once all carriers have announced release dates.

 

[caliskimmer]

It's a tricky area for Samsung, though. It's easier to market a single specific product with a single specific name. Droid droid droid droid... one name, one easy to remember catchphrase.

It can be argued that "Vibrant", "Captivate", and especially "Epic 4G" are all more compelling names than "Galaxy S", but the problem is that they're all different names, nothing to focus on. While Samsung is trying to get "Galaxy S" burned into the minds of the smartphone-buying public, T-Mobile is (lightly) pushing "Vibrant", AT&T is (even more lightly) pushing "Captivate"... I fear that only folks like us hanging around smartphone sites will make the connection.

I want to be proven wrong though, and a clever marketing campaign can overcome all of these difficulties. Samsung could highlight the fact that whatever your carrier, you can get the phone, all carriers are equal (some carriers are more equal than others of course ). They can only do that though once all carriers have announced release dates.

You make a good point. So would it be mostly up to the carriers to advertise their product?

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

You make a good point. So would it be mostly up to the carriers to advertise their product?

I would say its up to them to market their varient, yes. If Sprint wants to roll with the 4G strategy, they need to have commercials out with it being the Next 4G Smartphone with Physical Keyboard, the Epic 4G for Sprint, A Galaxy S Phone, Only on the Now Network... or something like that.

T-Mo can talk about how its the brightest, most Vibrant screen
ATT... well yeah, they COULD go with... Its not an Iphone, and thats a good thing. But highly unlikely as I truly believe Apple is keeping them in business. You can get a blackberry on any carrier. Personally, I think Captivate and Fascinate were dumb names for the phones.

 

[caliskimmer]

I would say its up to them to market their varient, yes. If Sprint wants to roll with the 4G strategy, they need to have commercials out with it being the Next 4G Smartphone with Physical Keyboard, the Epic 4G for Sprint, A Galaxy S Phone, Only on the Now Network... or something like that.

T-Mo can talk about how its the brightest, most Vibrant screen
ATT... well yeah, they COULD go with... Its not an Iphone, and thats a good thing. But highly unlikely as I truly believe Apple is keeping them in business. You can get a blackberry on any carrier. Personally, I think Captivate and Fascinate were dumb names for the phones.

Agreed. Sprint has a good conpetitor and so does T-Mobile, but the Captivate and Fascinate are shrouded beneath the iPhone and the Droid series phones.

 

[Mattism78]

I would say its up to them to market their varient, yes. If Sprint wants to roll with the 4G strategy, they need to have commercials out with it being the Next 4G Smartphone with Physical Keyboard, the Epic 4G for Sprint, A Galaxy S Phone, Only on the Now Network... or something like that.

T-Mo can talk about how its the brightest, most Vibrant screen
ATT... well yeah, they COULD go with... Its not an Iphone, and thats a good thing. But highly unlikely as I truly believe Apple is keeping them in business. You can get a blackberry on any carrier. Personally, I think Captivate and Fascinate were dumb names for the phones.

I definitely think it's do-able for them to market the phone. They can roll the "first" campaign over to the first 4g phone with a qwerty and super amoled display. There's definitely ways for them to continue the campaign just not sure if they want to.

To most of us the Epic is going to be an amazing device. We focus on every aspect of the phone and highly covet it. To the normal phone/smartphone user I'm not sure that there's enough substance to set this phone apart. I think that Sprint will lose out on some potential customers if the droid 2 releases first.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

I'm wondering if the hold up is to intentionally compete with the Droid2... which is won't be able to, even though it should be a better phone, the Droid marketing is solid.

 

[Mook1e]

They're about to lose at least one Epic buyer to the Evo. I was looking to switch from AT&T w/ my wife for 2 Epics, but she's ready to switch now and the Evo looks good enough to her.

 

[Mattism78]

They're about to lose at least one Epic buyer to the Evo. I was looking to switch from AT&T w/ my wife for 2 Epics, but she's ready to switch now and the Evo looks good enough to her.

Could be losing 2. If the Droid 2 comes out and I like it I'll probably pick one up.

 

[drizek]

I don't understand why anyone would prefer the DROID 2. It uses a standard LCD, the display is smaller, we don't know how good the camera is, the keyboard is definitely not as good as the Epics, and it weighs more. It also has no front facing camera, no wimax and a slower GPU.

I guess the build quality might be a bit better, but honestly, that is the one and only advantage I can think of.

The Galaxy S line of phones, IMO, are the best things out there on any carrier, even compared to the iPhone. Any lack of success will be entirely due to bad marketing.

 

[caliskimmer]

I don't understand why anyone would prefer the DROID 2. It uses a standard LCD, the display is smaller, we don't know how good the camera is, the keyboard is definitely not as good as the Epics, and it weighs more. It also has no front facing camera, no wimax and a slower GPU.

I guess the build quality might be a bit better, but honestly, that is the one and only advantage I can think of.

The Galaxy S line of phones, IMO, are the best things out there on any carrier, even compared to the iPhone. Any lack of success will be entirely due to bad marketing.

Some people can get tired of waiting and just get something else.

 

[Darth Pooh#CB]

I don't understand why anyone would prefer the DROID 2. It uses a standard LCD, the display is smaller, we don't know how good the camera is, the keyboard is definitely not as good as the Epics, and it weighs more. It also has no front facing camera, no wimax and a slower GPU.

I guess the build quality might be a bit better, but honestly, that is the one and only advantage I can think of.

The Galaxy S line of phones, IMO, are the best things out there on any carrier, even compared to the iPhone. Any lack of success will be entirely due to bad marketing.

Simply put... The majority of what VZW sells is due to marketing. My sister was waiting for the Incredible but went with the DX simply due to the backorder, she doesn't understand the differences nor does she care. It's a nice device and she is happy but she also doesn't know better

And hence, we do know better but are simply in the minority to make a difference in sales. So it isn't bad marketing but rather a lack of marketing by Sprint (and other carriers). Since "Droid" was a VZW thing... It applies to all Android devices, whether it is HTC or MOTO. People come in and want Droid... That references 4 different devices. Brilliant.

I've seen Galaxy S commercials for Samsung, but they just want mind share so it hasn't been device specific. I could see them splitting costs with carriers for a specific device but they sell them to the carriers so they are already sold; we aren't the customer to Samsung, HTC, or MOTO (Apple is a different beast, can't use them to compare). If you notice HTC commercials are very generic and non-device specific.

 

[ZoogieZork]

I get nervous reading numerous horror stories about people's Samsung phones in the past. However companies can improve. I wouldn't have owned a Ford 5 years ago but now they're leading the pack in a lot of categories.

The only Samsung phone I've owned was a super-tiny Samsung Trace which was IMHO quite well put together and served me well as both phone and MP3 player for over a year. I ultimately gave it up when it met an unfortunate end at the hands of my washing machine -- a downside to being so lightweight I always forgot it was in my pocket!

I shouldn't have given up on it so soon, though -- a year later I gave it to a friend and when he powered it on, it worked perfectly!

 

[caliskimmer]

Simply put... The majority of what VZW sells is due to marketing. My sister was waiting for the Incredible but went with the DX simply due to the backorder, she doesn't understand the differences nor does she care. It's a nice device and she is happy but she also doesn't know better

And hence, we do know better but are simply in the minority to make a difference in sales. So it isn't bad marketing but rather a lack of marketing by Sprint (and other carriers). Since "Droid" was a VZW thing... It applies to all Android devices, whether it is HTC or MOTO. People come in and want Droid... That references 4 different devices. Brilliant.

I've seen Galaxy S commercials for Samsung, but they just want mind share so it hasn't been device specific. I could see them splitting costs with carriers for a specific device but they sell them to the carriers so they are already sold; we aren't the customer to Samsung, HTC, or MOTO (Apple is a different beast, can't use them to compare). If you notice HTC commercials are very generic and non-device specific.

Yes, exactly. I know of one person who got an iPhone 4 just because it was marketed well. He claimed it had no signal problems and even bragged about it. I simply asked him for it, lightly put my fingers on the the antenna areas, and we both watched the bars go down one by one. He looked astonished and got pretty ticked off. Hey, but Apple got another customer with their superior marketing skills. As for the Galaxy S series, nobody I know has heard of it except one friend.

Verizon also markets their products well as you just explained, Keith.

 

[caliskimmer]

Does anyone think that there will be announcement made in the next 2 weeks about the release date?

 

[turtlenator694]

Does anyone think that there will be announcement made in the next 2 weeks about the release date?

Yes, or else.

 

[caliskimmer]

Yes, or else.

Well, I won't have computer access for 10 days starting Wednesday, so I'm hoping I'll come back to screaming forum members saying "Yes! August [insert day here] release! So excited! Just pre-ordered!"

 

[turtlenator694]

Well, I won't have computer access for 10 days starting Wednesday, so I'm hoping I'll come back to screaming forum members saying "Yes! August [insert day here] release! So excited! Just pre-ordered!"

Ouch 10 days.. Torture but I really hope to be saying that too. I've been waking up every morning and the first thing I do is check to see if it was released yet! I'll be ecstatic when it is released! If no news we can set up a Recon team to go interrogate Dan Hesse for the release date and make him give us free Epics?

 

[Mattism78]

Well, I won't have computer access for 10 days starting Wednesday, so I'm hoping I'll come back to screaming forum members saying "Yes! August [insert day here] release! So excited! Just pre-ordered!"

Just PM me your cell number. I'll send you a text if there's a launch date announced within the time that you are without internet.

 

[caliskimmer]

Ouch 10 days.. Torture but I really hope to be saying that too. I've been waking up every morning and the first thing I do is check to see if it was released yet! I'll be ecstatic when it is released! If no news we can set up a Recon team to go interrogate Dan Hesse for the release date and make him give us free Epics?

I like this idea! We can do this...well, in 10 days starting Wednesday

Just PM me your cell number. I'll send you a text if there's a launch date announced within the time that you are without internet.

PM sent