Samsung Mocks Apple’s Lack of Innovation Ahead of iPhone 14 Launch

With a new iPhone right around the corner, it’s time for the revival of one of the mobile industry’s longest-running feuds: Samsung has released a new ad taking a dig at Apple for its lack of innovation in smartphones.

The ad highlights innovations that are “not coming to an iPhone near you” because they’re already available in Samsung’s own similarly-priced devices like the Galaxy S22 Ultra and Galaxy Z Flip 4. It comes ahead of the launch of the iPhone 14 on September 7th.

Samsung’s Ad Makes Fun of Apple

The ad, entitled “Buckle Up”, is not shy at taking pot shots at Apple.

It highlights Samsung’s own innovations like the highest resolution cameras in smartphones, the introduction of zoom lenses, and the cutting-edge form factors of folding devices, and jokes that you won’t be seeing these in the iPhone any time soon. Expectations for the iPhone 14 are that it will re-use the same design it’s had since the iPhone 12.

Samsung’s jabs are not entirely unfair. The company certainly is more willing to experiment with new features and form factors, while Apple prefers a much slower, more iterative pace of development. This is seen especially in the design. Samsung has launched four generations of folding phones, while the iPhone is only now thought to be losing its notorious notch.

It’s far from the first time that Samsung has chosen to make fun of the iPhone, although the move does sometimes backfire. In 2020, the company put out Facebook ads deriding Apple’s decision to remove the charger from the iPhone box. But then, as The Verge noted, it quietly removed them as Samsung subsequently decided to nix the charger too.

Samsung vs. Apple

The rivalry between the two companies goes back to 2011 when Apple sued Samsung for patent infringements in some of its early smartphones including the original Galaxy S. The case was finally settled in 2018.

Yet the needle continues. Earlier this year, Apple’s marketing head Greg Joswiak used an interview celebrating the 15th anniversary of the iPhone to moan about Samsung—ignoring the fact that the iPhone has now itself adopted numerous things that debuted on Android devices, from bigger screens and multi-camera setups, to home screen widgets.