21st February, 2016. Ringing the bells in your mind? Yes, it was just a day before Mobile World Congress, when two Korean giants set the stage on fire with their new year’s flagship offerings. First, LG announced G5 with its friends and just 4 hours later Samsung pull out their guns with S7/Edge.
When LG first launched G5 with friends, I honestly thought LG outdone themselves with the execution of G5. The G5 consists full metal design, latest offerings from Qualcomm, Micro-SD slot, Removable battery and unique modular slot. Samsung really needed to come up with something special to match LG’s show. And they did too. The Galaxy S7 and its bigger Edge brother are beautifully crafted evolutionary products from their predecessors. This S7 combo checked all the consumer complaints from previous S generation, be it Micro-SD slot or bigger battery or water-resistance, they all made a grand comeback in same premium glass/metal sandwich. Things were perfectly fine at this stage. The Android world was waiting for another round of S v/s G. And from here is where Samsung took the lead from LG.
Just after the S7/Edge presentation, Samsung immediately announced pricing, availability and pre-order offers on latest Galaxies. Carriers around the world also came up with their own pre-order bonuses. For instance, T- Mobile customers were offered free Gear VR, fast wireless charger, 32 GB Micro-SD card, 1 year of Netflix and $30 Best Buy gift card to book their S7/Edge. Verizon also jumps on board with free Gear S2 or Gear VR offer. Whereas LG was sitting in corner, keeping tight lips about availability of G5. Many including myself were very curious to know about G5 and specially friends pricing (After all it was the main selling point of G5), but unfortunately there was no word about it.
And then, there is marketing. It is said that “You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything”. We all are familiar with the marketing muscles of Samsung, spending crazy amounts of money to promote their latest flagships. New Galaxies were no exception here. The 7th generation S series was all over the world, be it on web or any other social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. Hell, even in latest Oscars, S7 Edge got an excellent ShowTime in this celebrity packed advertising promo. With all marketing promos and big advertising banners, S7 and its brother got a grand launch on 11th March and further pushed in more countries by 18th March including India. But, wait! What about LG G5! It was nowhere to be found. At one point, it almost felt that, only S7 was launched at MWC and not G5! Now, LG did say that, they will push G5 more than ever but, it’s still remain to be seen.
The latest LG teaser on YouTube did confirm the launch date of G5 on 1st April but, then the question strikes here. Why did they announce their flagship 40 days before the availability? Just to share the same stage with Samsung? There is no doubt, LG G5 is an excellent phone but, it’s not getting the attention it deserves. So, what do you think? Did LG just wait for Galaxy S7 buzz to come down or they just miss the trick here and taken away by Samsung’s aggressive push ?
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