Samsung miselads with Galaxy S II voice spot

Samsung has run another ad for the Galaxy S II that this time deliberately omits an iPhone feature that negates its advantage. One of those waiting in line for an iPhone ducks into a store and is impressed when he sees a clerk use Android's built-in Voice Actions to send a text. In a first for the ad campaign, the S II actually catches a buyer, who raises concerns among his iPhone queue friends when he doesn't come back.

The ad is the second in Samsung's renewed campaign and also the second to hide the truth to make its selling point. While Voice Actions clearly came first to Android, showing with Android 2.2 in mid-2010, those waiting in line for the iPhone 4S would have no problems texting by voice using Siri. Apple's system is technically more advanced than what the Galaxy S II ships with, too, supporting continuous dictation as well as more natural language to start and follow up on messages.

Without having directly anticipated Siri, Samsung does already have a pseudo-natural voice engine for other elements through the inclusion of Vlingo. As a third-party app, though, it's not directly integrated into the OS and is still less flexible in key areas even as it does some things Apple can't.

Samsung is expected to run an ad during the Super Bowl, but whether it's genuinely new, an expansion, or one of the existing ads isn't clear. Android-themed Super Bowl ads so far haven't panned out, with Motorola's Devour and Xoom ads still leading to poor sales.

By Electronista Staff

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iPhone, industry, Android, Samsung, mobile phones, Apple, Galaxy, Siri, Vlingo, Galaxy S II