HTC trolls Samsung Galaxy S4, calls it gimmicky and the Next Big Flop

It seems that not everyone was left impressed by the lavish unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S4 last Thursday night. Samsung rival HTC took to Twitter to unleash a bit of bants about the slightly bizarre New York event, asking somewhat rhetorically, “How off-Broadway is this production?” accompanied by the hashtag “#theNextBigFlop”.

And it didn’t end there, with HTC CMO Ben Ho claiming that the S4 represented “more of the same”, that it “pales in comparison to the all-aluminum [sic] unibody HTC One” and that HTC customers are a discerning lot that don’t want this kind of “mainstream” phone. How very hipster of you, Mr Ho.

We’ve taken it that little bit further, asking HTC reps in the region what they think of the new Sammy S4.

This first bit comes from HTC…

There is no shying away from the fact that 2013 was dubbed the year “as the survival of the fittest”. A year poised to define the competitive landscape and push the envelope of innovation for the years ahead.

For me, this device reflects a certain amount of apathy in development. Will commercials with unicorns, retain the customer base that abandoned Apple for something new? This is the heart of HTC’s opportunity to regain share: a superior device that is visually exciting, and provides an amazing experience.

We are very excited; In the Middle East- we see the time is ripe to consolidate our presence. With the award winning HTC One – we are battle ready. Visually while you see us go head to head with our competitors in the market place. The actual fight will take place in minds of consumers – if we manage to drive purchase consideration – that’s half the battle one, because the rest really doesn’t matter as we are confident of having a superior product…and that’s where we are going to divert all our energies.

The gimmicky adverts can only do so much….

What do you think of the design?

Arguably, form factor is key – while our design goal is to deliver products that are premium and aspirational; with the HTC One, we’ve reinvented the space with a product crafted entirely out of metal. In comparison we see a continuation of a plastic body, a larger screen – being the only obvious physical change. The next best thing? Is not plastic.

And the camera..?

We see a continuation of the perpetuation of the Megapixel Myth. There is more to a camera than megapixels. What about the sensor and the lenses? The megapixel race ignores the crucial role of light for taking great pictures and video. HTC broke new ground – with UltraPixel sensor – which gathers 300%more light per-pixel making it ideal companion to capture and cherish those prized moments. There is no comparison – is the camera good enough? Yes – but is good enough what we are settling for?

How will the Samsung Galaxy S4 speakers hold up against the HTC One‘s?

Our ingenuity in unparalleled. We’ve led the way in mobile sound experience, and with Beats by Dre and BoomSound front-facing speakers with in-built amplifiers, we remain ahead of the curve.

Dare we ask, but was the Galaxy S4 innovative enough?

Innovation sets benchmarks. At HTC we take pride in steering the industry into the future. The HTC One was the first smartphone to feature the new 802.11AC wireless standard. It’s great to see other companies following the standard we established

We’ll reserve judgement until we compare both in our Versus feature later today.

Stay tuned next week, when we ask Samsung what it thinks of the HTC One’s all-aluminium design, and Dyson tells us why LG’s robo-cleaners look pants.