An Early Samsung Note?

What's the point?

Samsung has been getting it's clock-cleaned already by Apple.  Does it really think that's because people have "already spent their upgrade money?"

This is a loss for Samsung in every way possible.

At this point, the press coverage is so hyped that if they don't ship, it's going to look like they missed an (imaginary) deadline. [on that note- hey Samsung, you want to be Apple so bad? How do you like getting bad press for a late release on a product you didn't even announce? ha!]  If they do release early everyone expected it and if they don't, it'll be panned as "late."  Lose.

If they rush it out and it’s buggy, laggy, or otherwise janky (and let’s face it- TouchWiz- so probably) it will be railed for being under-cooked.  Lose.

No matter how well it sells, it won't outsell the iPhone as a whole.  Samsung flagship devices never have.  But especially since Apple doesn't break out 6 versus 6 Plus sales, there won't be any way to really tell how it did.  And Apple will still own the high-end.  Lose.

Being “first to market” hasn’t ever helped Samsung much either.  Certainly Android Wear didn’t gain a damn thing from a 2 year head-start.  And this is a mature product category.  PLUS, time and time again studies suggest that people switch from Android to Apple more than the other way around.  If they release first and the device has issues (no SD card or removable battery anyone?) then many might decide to hold out for forthcoming iPhone rather than wait on the iPhone on hopes that the Note is good.  Lose.

And finally, there is SO MUCH hope invested in this device from the Fan-droid community to have features it may not.  If this thing doesn't have a removable battery and SD card slot, it's going to get panned in reviews.  Potential lose. OR, if it does have those features, it will pick-up a lot from hold-outs on the S6 series; which won’t be enough sales to make it a run-away hit, but will be enough to further sink S6 numbers.  Lose.

Bottom line, the ONLY way Samsung wins would be if they release the device, EVERYONE loves it, and it not only sells, but sells so well that ALL iPhones everywhere drop off in sales too.

Never.  Going.  To. Happen.

No matter what Samsung does or doesn’t do, Apple will sell more iPhones then ever.  Again.  Which is why every phone that is set-up to be an “iPhone killer” is itself already a loser.  The game is rigged because the stakes can’t be made.

But Samsung set those rules themselves, so I don’t have any sympathy...