As an old school Linux user, I always struggled to keep myself enclosed into a unique ecosystem. While a piece of me looks forward for the convenience of moving the mouse between two devices and copy/paste smoothly, that young boy looking for personalization and tinkering is still there and acts like a whisper in my ear telling that choosing a company to stick with is not what we were dreaming about.
Because this is where we go when picking an ecosystem to stick with, we are literally picking a company, we are putting our beliefs in their long term plans and their willing to allow us to do more with their devices.
So, before sharing my impressions on the ecosystems, let me share how Apple and Samsung have grown on me as companies.
Apple
What could I tell you about Apple that you don’t know yet? The company is well known for its history, the myth of Steve Jobs, the Californian garage where everything started.
We all know what Apple stake is and we all have our own opinion regarding the most important company of the world – according to S&P500 at least -, so, maybe, what I can tell is my personal experience with the Cupertino biggest attraction.
As a Hardware Engineer, I believe Apple has found the way. It is true that they deliver both hardware and software and it is extremely true that this makes a huge difference when it comes to stability, integration and overall performances.
At the same time, I see the lies behind. Apple is providing great integration, yeah, but also poor options in terms of functionalities and customization.
So, yeah, everything is more stable and smooth but also more simple, this cuts completely off who really have productivity needs. Struggling to have more windows open on an iPad with a powerful M4 chip is a shame, missing a separation of apps sound on an iPhone is a hot miss, limited battery on an Apple Watch is just a marketing choice.
And this is the point with Apple, this is the feeling that they settle inside me, I feel like I am buying the best while someone behind is sticking a finger in my ass.
Samsung
Samsung is a less known company compared to Apple, and it’s obvious. They are an Asian company, so they lack all of that myth that only Americans are able to nurture around everything.
However, they have nothing to be jealous when it comes to history and relevance in the market. They are an institution in South Korea (like a few other companies), they produce basically everything that comes to mind: smartphones, laptops, wearables, home appliances, even ships, military stuff, etc.
Basically, when you see those movies describing a future with a company that is dominating the world producing everything and influencing the politics and social life, well that’s Samsung in Korea.
Now, with that being said, my personal, overall, opinion about Samsung is good. I appreciate a few choices that they do and totally despise others.
For instance, Samsung, probably as a foreign company in both US and Europe, has to watch itself from applying region restriction when it comes to feature drop and new functionality releases. This is totally different when it comes to hardware of course, some smartphone models and other devices are sometime released in a region and not in another, but it is acceptable due to different needs of different consumer and logistics reasons. It is not always easy to keep all warehouses aligned and full.
Plus, Samsung puts a lot of beef when it comes to functionalities, options and even compatibility with third party accessories/systems. They use Android on their smartphones, they pack a lot of features in their OneUI skin and they use Windows on their laptops. These choices make their devices highly compatible with a vast assortment of softwares and accessories.
At the same time, since they use generic systems, they lack in stability, sometimes in integrations and for sure in vision on their products. Furthermore, they apply weird choices like, for one thing, not allowing to pair a chest heart rate monitor with their smartwatches, despite praising that these are perfect for sport enthusiasts.
The Ecosystems showdown
What is relevant in an ecosystem
Let’s move on in this article and let’s face another focal point of our analysis, what is really worth to have in an ecosystem.
Is copy/paste transparency relevant? Is sending a file quickly really important? Is answering a call from the laptop a key feature?
Again, we fall in a field of subjective needs. When it comes to ecosystem and why opting for one (if, opting for just one), it really depends by what you want to do, why you need it. Maybe you just want to share your notes between more devices, maybe you want to move your mouse from the laptop from the tablet since you are using them in combo on your desk while working, maybe you just want to pass all of your photo quickly to a device more powerful than your camera or smartphone.
Well, the good thing is that these are nowadays considered “basic” functionalities, meaning that they are pretty wide spread and many ecosystems on the market provide them. Of course, this is also true for the Samsung and Apple ones.
However, there is more that we can analyze regarding of what we need in an ecosystem, especially when the ecosystem is so big like the ones offered by these companies. For instance, health is a huge market that these two giants have invaded and is something that is embedded in their universe as well. What about controlling our home appliances? Samsung has fridges, TVs, vacuums that can be included in this category, while Apple provides the Home pod and integration with other brands’ devices.
Overall, you can do the math and tell what and which ecosystem you really need, but one I believe the only objective parameter where we can compare them is the quality in terms of connection between device and flswlessly.
Samsung Ecosystem
So what is Samsung offering? Smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, laptops, TVs, smart monitors and these are just the geek ones. Additionally, Samsung has its business going in many other directions such as home electronics: fridges, refrigerators, vacuums, etc.
These are all connected and all controllable from the SmartThings app that Samsung provides in their devices and on the Android’s Play Store.
I can’t tell personally for the home electronics since I have none, but when it comes to the geek part, well, I do have my experience to share.
Samsung smartphones and tablets communication is ok but not great, they see each other easily when in the same network but operations such as quick sharing a file or a photo are often unstable. There are more than a few times where I regretted to not just going for a usb pendrive to mediate between the devices.
Same goes with the laptops, it’s easy to find a Galaxy phone or tablet but then the connection is sometimes unstable.
When it comes to sharing the mouse/keyboard, it goes a bit better, but is laggy.
While I can tell that the ecosystem doesn’t miss on the Galaxy Buds seamless sharing. Moving from the smartphone to the tablet to the computer, the Buds are promptly moved with you and the audio sources shifts pretty quickly.
Overall, I honestly got disappointed by the Samsung reliability when it comes to use their ecosystem and I rarely felt like I could have been working with many Samsung devices opened and interacting between them swiftly.
Apple Ecosystem
Apple ecosystem is way limited in terms of variety when compared to the Samsung one. Apple is not providing anything more than the nerd needs.
The features are basically the same that we can find in the Samsung’s one and, as a non-Apple fan, there is only one way to describe it: it works.
Exactly, it just works, like moving your mouse between a MacBook and a Mac and on an iPad is buttery. Despite being slow, AirDrop never miss a file exchange, it never miss a send or a reception. Furthermore, Apple offers something that Samsung doesn’t, which is iCloud that increase even more this feeling of drowning into this soft bed that embeds your whole life.
I am sorry to be so quick on it, but that’s it. I mean we can discuss regarding the number of devices and regarding the options, but the Apple one gave me no issues at all in what they offer.
Then, as in many cases, Apple doesn’t offer full customizations. It doesn’t allow “others” to enter the ecosystem, it doesn’t allows cool feature like sharing the S Pen between tablet and phone and for sure it doesn’t allow your Apple Watch to be more than a smartphone accessory.
Closing thoughts
So, we came to an end. This was supposed to be a bit different perspective, without huge lists of features that are always the same, but with a bit more of experience and direct approach to what really matters when it comes to pick an ecosystem.
There is a question that we would need to answer tho: is an ecosystem needed?
Youtube videos and social media makes us sick with beautifully edited photos and videos showing how cool we would appear sit at our desk with a shining bitten apple on all of our devices or that minimalistic samsung text on their back. The truth is that an ecosystem is worth for a very few individuals and moreover for professionals. For the rest of us, at the end of the day, a USB pendrive and a good mouse/keyboard such as Logitech’s are more than enough to enjoy our multi device experience with no flew.
See ya.