Dana Brunetti, president of Trigger Street Products, the company behind such movies and television shows as The Social Network and House of Cards, was invited to a dinner party hosted by treats! magazine editor Steve Shaw at the home of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins who claimed they had the idea of creating Facebook before Mark Zuckerberg did.
When he first arrived at the luxurious house of the Winklevoss twins, Brunetti was greeted by a Samsung representative who gave him a brand new Galaxy S3. Brunetti was a dedicated owner of a variety of Apple products, but he politely accepted the gift.
Brunetti watched the tutorial given by the Samsung representative. During the tutorial his facial expression said, “Yeah, I’m going back to the iPhone as soon as dinner’s over.”
Shaw was Brunetti’s close friend and he said the phone felt nice in his hand, so he decided to carry both the S3 and his iPhone 4 for one month.
“At the end of the month,” he said, “I put the iPhone down.”
Brunetti was a victim of a Samsung program known as “White Glove,” a marketing effort designed to take iPhone users and have them switch to Samsung products.
“People love things that are free, particularly celebrities,” Brunetti said. “They’re the last people that need something free, but it’s smart. They wouldn’t buy it otherwise.”
When people try a new phone, they often like it. Research conducted by JumpTap last month shows Apple’s mobile device market share remained flat while Samsung’s share increased 5 percent year-over-year.
Consumer Reports, along with many other companies, rank the Galaxy S4 as the top smartphone.
After using the S3 for a couple months, Brunetti also switched his iPad for a Samsung Galaxy Tab. He couldn’t stop talking about how great the widget support is on Android.
For a man who replies to 300 emails and takes 50 phone calls a day, the little features he’s found with his new devices are, “a huge time saver,” he says. “The way they’ve started to hit my industry has been pretty smart.”
Brunetti has also become an evangelist for Samsung products among his colleagues as he gets more of his friends to make the switch to Samsung. He continues to appreciate the small things that his S3 offers like shortcut gestures, the back button, and a removable battery.
He also tried the Galaxy Note, which then became “and extension of his arm.” Brunetti attempted to return to his iPhone but he couldn’t, saying “it felt like a children’s toy when I picked it up.” Against his best wishes, Samsung’s White Glove program worked.
[via Fast Company]
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I have experienced the opposite. My work wanted us to switch to Samsung. Used both for a while and reverted back to the iphone. Got a galaxy tab and a couple days later went and exchanged it for an ipad. Two of my other colleagues who were raving about the samsung after switching have bought the 5s half a year later and another one is getting an iphone instead of a Samsung next. In my field of work we are experiencing the opposite.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Yep, I’ve noticed a similar trend among the people I know. The ones that once raved about their samsung phone and how much better it was than my iphone have since switched to iPhone.
I personally bought the first galaxy tab after owning an ipad and I went running back to iPad. Sure, I was an ‘early adopter’ of an android tablet but the experience was just awful.
Another article from iPhoneinCanada shows just that, that people tend to return to the iPhone after going to Samsung. It’ll be even better for Apple when they go for a larger screen this fall.
Stupid article. Brainwash ppl more plz. I wonder how much Apple pay you.
Correction: I wonder how much Apple “paid” you.
Answer: $0
But Google AdSense definitely pays you $xx,xxx 🙂 Which is somewhat ironic, being an iPhone site.
I don’t get this comment. The article is actually pro-Samsung. Why would Apple pay this site to publish it?
He basically bought a brand new house with the money he got from this article. A big one. In Forest Hill.
Love my Samsung Galaxy4! I have had the pleasure of utilizing both the iphone4 and the Samsung Galaxy 3 & 4. IPHONE-totally slow and annoying! Could not handle any multitask functions like samsung. Personally everyone, Samsung has the fastest operating system and its capabilities are endless. ~Pipsqueak’s Cleaning Service, Hamilton, Ontario. CA
That’s because it’s an old iPhone 4. Upgrade to a 5S, and you’ll notice a night & day improvement in speed. I do like the S4 and it’s multitasking capabilities though.
I thought this is a iPhone lovers site?
There are iPhone fan-boi’s that worship everything Apple, and then there are some (like me) that just like the best technology, regardless of brand.
Interesting tactic to influence. The title of this article is totally misleading thought. It should read “Why One Famous Person is using a Samsung smartphone.” There was no other famous people mentioned here. Also why I never really care what celebrities are using, since they are – most of the time – just bought in some way or another by the companies to show off the products.
It’s not about the celebrity. It’s about the process Samsung employs with – wait for it – famous people. Title is relevant, even though leading (only one *case* demonstrating success of the effort). Now were the text saying this Samsung rep tried something new, or a once-off effort, then you might have a point. But if Samsung’s tactic is target celebrities with free phones to attempt to get them to switch over a longer term, and this sample case was a success, then the title is perfectly fine.
Also if you don’t care what celebrities are using, then ignore the article and don’t needlessly spend the time replying 😛
Title is NOT relevant. Article must backup the title. It doesn’t. Article is a bust.
Besides, only a troll would write: “If you don’t care what celebrities are using, then ignore the article and don’t needlessly spend the time replying”
One case does not mean that it is widespread. IN-fact, I don’t consider this person famous at all. Successful perhaps, but fame is something very different. The title is extremely misleading, I clicked for one thing, and got something else. I believe I am justifiably disappointed in the time I spent reading it, and annoyed at the author.
Yet you justified your time spent replying to a comment posted in an article you wish you hadn’t clicked because you were misled and thought it was effectively a waste of time. Ah, internets!
I thought the article was interesting, because it described the tactic by which Samsung reps may subversively entice celebrities into adopting their product (via the “White Glove” program). My opinion is the article and title were just fine. It’s not really an Apple-favoring article, and seems a little out of place on IIC — but that’s all my opinion. Is yours therefore nullified? Of course not. It’s an opinion. We have different ones. Yay, diversity! 😛
The twins still live together? Kinda creepy.
This this is a paid ad for Samsung you’re trying to pull off as a genuine tech story. Treating your readership like we are stupid isn’t cool. There’s a ton of tech news sites. You are replaceable.
Are you for real? Seriously? Have a great day.
Many Apple fans simply want clickbait articles that praise their phone. Kudos for not selling out like so many tech blogs do.
Yep, for real Gary. You’re a publisher, come on, you know what goes on. There’s no way you can deny what all the companies do; they write the story and pay sites like yours to run the ad like a story. You know it, we know. As for this story/ad, it’s just not believable. Never happened, all made up. I have no doubt.
Before you feel the need to accuse us,
Gary, do you need another writer? I would love to write tech articles that I can stand behind far more than read articles with misleading titles. I understand that stories (especially headlines) need to play an angle to generate interest, and clicks, but this misleading headline stuff can be toxic to your relationship with readers. I love the site, and have since you launched way back in those heady early iDays, so please take my criticism as constructive rather than trolling. I comment because I care.
We always disclose if there are sponsored advertorials. Check our most recent posts sponsored by Best Buy about smartphone accessories.
We don’t ever run stories as ads without telling readers, despite what is running rampant in your imagination. If we see a story that we think is interesting, we’ll pursue it. That’s it. Now go outside for a walk to get some fresh air and wake up will ya?
If you buy a Samsung phone based on this story you my fellow readership are not “like stupid”, you are stupid. The only thing this story tells you is how Samsung is trying to market towards rich people. Did you even read to story?
A plasticy, twisty toy of a phone rates higher to famous people? I don’t get it. Some people have no taste or eye for quality I guess. Most android users use the text and phone features only and can’t figure out how the other fancy things work.
I work for a service provider and in my experience you are describing iPhone users, txt, email, facebook, thats it. You cannot deny the fact that the iPhone hardware is the best handset on the market. My issue is with iOS and the limitations Apple imposes on it. For me Android just works the way I want it to, not the way Apple says im allowed to use it.
So we’re using Dana Brunetti’s experiences to validate that celebrities prefer Samsung over the iPhone? Hmm. Sounds like irrefutable logic to me.
Oh yeah, Consumer Reports? I’ve never agreed with any of their write-ups except when they say something is shitty. Otherwise, I find they’re always wrong in “my world”.
the dirty game of Samsung. STAR WARS.
Apple has always been filled with the most perverse fanatics on the planet. They are all just about as brainwashed as Hitler’s Youth extolling the virtues of their White Supremacist Elitist Beliefs in the supremacy of the German Race. Their icon was Hitler and the Swastika! …………..and for the True Applewellian Elitist Cult Members today it’s the Apple Logo!!!
They almost believe (and some actually do) the Apple Logo has some kind of Magical and Revolutionary Power to raise the dead and perform miraculous things other products, made using the same parts and standards can’t do. When in all reality Apple’s products have less features and now aren’t all that easy to use, because of them borrowing, copying and stealing technology and features from their competitors!
Yet….. writers like this will take a story like this and bend it into a witch hunt accusing anyone, who attempts to expose the Wizardry behind Apple products as a sham of cult followers themselves gets accused of paying for it….. like Samsung is here!!!
How do you think iPhones get into movies or even Samsung Phones? They both pay Celebrities to endorse their products. So when Samsung goes to using Tupperware Sales Tactics in “White Glove” Celebrity parties the deluded masses media and backdoor funded Doublethink Proles go out on the offensive. Because it’s Working for Samsung just as well as it’s always worked for Fascist Leaders and Applewellian Proles, Shills and their Thought Police Too!!!