Samsung’s AI subscription is no different from what Apple and Google are already doing
According to a report by ET News, Samsung may expand its Galaxy AI subscription club to South Korea’s flagship Galaxy phones next month. The two words to pay close attention to in this sentence are possible and South Korea.
The Galaxy AI subscription club is already famous in Samsung’s hometown for its line of smart home appliances. The service was launched in December and consumer response has been very positive, with subscription sales already accounting for 30% of Samsung store purchases. Koreans love Samsung and its software and are willing to buy it.
The American public was less enthusiastic.
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That’s why you may have seen news about Samsung’s “mobile subscription” in the news this week. Thanks to some rather dubious articles on the matter, it’s thought that Samsung is introducing some kind of subscription pricing for the phones we’re about to see at Galaxy Unpacked.
To be very clear – we are not. This is only For this particular AI service, even though it’s coming to the U.S., I hate that we call it a phone subscription because it’s not; it’s a software subscription, nothing like the software subscriptions that Adobe or Norton offer for your PC. different. The phone thing is weird sometimes.
Enough about what the AI club is and how it might expand. Let’s talk about reactions. Why do people hate Samsung when it does the exact same thing as Apple and Google for the same type of services?
If you have a new iPhone, you can use the Apple Intelligence feature for free until 2027, but to take full advantage of it, you can connect it to a paid ChatGPT subscription for $20 per month.
If you have an Android phone in some countries, you can use Google Gemini for free. To get the most out of Gemini, you can subscribe to the Google One plan that includes Gemini Advanced for $20 per month.
Samsung has said that all Galaxy AI features will be free for phone and tablet users until at least the end of 2025. possible Includes South Korea’s artificial intelligence subscription tier.
If Apple and Google are fine, then Samsung should be fine too.
Judging from the reaction of Internet technology prosumers, it is obvious that this is not feasible for Samsung. This is because of the way we in the West view Samsung.
When you think of Samsung, you probably think of cell phones and the parts used to make them. Samsung is well-known as an electronics manufacturer, and almost every phone has some Samsung parts in it. Even an iPhone.
Samsung is good at this too. Consumers aren’t outraged by the performance of Samsung’s displays on the Pixel 9 or iPhone 16. The company’s phones and tablets are no slouch either, with the Galaxy S24 Ultra being one of the best phones you can buy.
When it comes to software, there isn’t the same enthusiasm. The company seems to have finally built a great version of Android with the latest version of One UI, but most tech enthusiasts don’t use Samsung’s mobile software regularly or at all.
Samsung’s apps, like the Stocks app on your iPhone, will end up in the trash folder if you can’t deactivate them. Bixby (which isn’t really that bad) is the butt of jokes among Android enthusiasts, and what Samsung is doing with Tizen should remind some people directly of Dante’s Inferno.
This is what American tech enthusiasts think of Samsung’s software. You don’t have to look far to find people saying they want to buy a Galaxy S24 Ultra running Google’s Pixel version of Android, and there are plenty of people trying to get it on their expensive phones. Most consumers don’t know any better, or don’t even care, and just use what’s available, but die-hard techies are the ones who speak their mind online.
I will never pay for an AI subscription, at least not until it provides a different way to feed me the information I already have. When that happens, I don’t care if Samsung, Apple, or Google offer it – I’ll buy whatever best suits my needs.
Chances are, we don’t have to worry about this at all in North America and it’s just a convenient excuse to complain about Samsung and artificial intelligence.
