14 DAY TRIAL // We’re only a few days away from the moment Samsung will start shipping the Galaxy S9 to those who pre-ordered the device, and in the meantime, the company is hard at work with its marketing push in the biggest markets across the world.
In Korea, for instance, the company launched so-called Galaxy S9 promotion studios that allow visitors to try out the device before its start shipping, and as it turns out, this approach has been super-successful since they opened their doors to fans.
Samsung says these promotion studios can be used to experience the new animated emoji feature coming exclusively to the Galaxy S9, and the company claims that no less than 1.6 million visitors have tried the feature since the unveiling in Spain.
On the other hand, it’s hard to guess how many of these visitors were impressed with AR Emoji and are committed to buying the Galaxy S9 just because of this feature.
Not copied from Apple
AR Emoji’s resemblance with Apple’s Animoji has made critics accuse Samsung of copying its long-time rival, though the South Korean firm says its own animated emoji feature has been in development for a long time. So the only thing that’s true is that Apple brought the iPhone X feature to the market before Samsung, but no copy-pasting happened here.
“Their approach and my approach is totally different,” Samsung’s mobile chief D. J. Koh said recently. “I do work seriously based off my own roadmap.”
The Samsung Galaxy S9 will officially become available for buyers worldwide on March 16 in the biggest markets, but those who pre-ordered the model will receive it a few days later. The device comes with substantial camera upgrades and a relocated fingerprint reader, all of them now placed in a vertical layout on the back of the phone.
Facial recognition a la iPhone X is also offered, though in this case Samsung isn’t using an approach that’s as complex as Apple’s and thus isn’t advertised as the main authentication method.