Viewers following Samsung’s Unpacked event in New York City this morning were treated to an hourlong theatre-style spectacle complete with setpiece performances, make-believe scenes and even a sprinkle of theatre in-jokes – a presentation style which seemed appropriate given the venue.
Reaction on Twitter was predictably varied between entertainment, amusement and embarrassment – a number of hashtags trending during the show like the expected #SamsungUnpacked to #MusicalShow (despite a lack of actual musical numbers) and #EmbarrassedBySamsung.
One of the more high-profile negative reactions to the event was this one, dropped by HTC just over halfway through the show:
So…how off-Broadway is this production? #theNextBigFlop #HTCOne
— HTC (@htc) March 14, 2013
What followed was a barrage of retweets of HTC’s message, with HTC retweeting negative opinions of Samsung’s show or the Galaxy S 4 phone, and users who talked up the HTC One over its newfound competition.
In an interview with CNET after the show, HTC President Jason MacKenzie said “I went from laughing to actually feeling embarrassed at some of the acting”.
It’s not clear precisely what HTC hopes to gain from this, other than attention. It’s possible they see this as a little bit of retaliation against Samsung, who seemingly upstaged the HTC One launch by announcing the date of the Unpacked event the day before. Their approach certainly frustrated and annoyed a number of prominent figures in the industry – including our own Buzz Moody.
I can’t wait for this to blow up in @htc face, since they’re being smartasses.
— Buzz Moody (@BuzzMoody) March 15, 2013
HTC launching offensive against Samsung?: Earlier this evening we saw HTC play the role of party crash… adf.ly/KrvMM #Droid
— BitGadget (@BitGadget) March 15, 2013
I know HTC are trying to keep morale up and all that, but the whole badmouthing the competition thing doesn’t really do it for me.
— Paul O’Brien (@PaulOBrien) March 15, 2013
Was this good marketing, or poor form? Tell us your thoughts the comments section.
Not sure what the fuss is about. Samsung has done worst. It’s called Karma.
They mock Apple and their users with their “how will people know I upgraded commercial” now others are doing it to them.
Not sure how Samsung is any less “smartass”.
Seeing LG mock Samsung’s advertisement in New York square was superb.
“prominent figures in the industry – including our own Buzz Moody.”
Hahaha
I was tempted to tweet back that the Galaxy event was about as embarrassing as HTC’s revenues over the past year, but in fairness there were plenty of tweets from others following the event that were critical of the performance. Plus nobody seems to read my tweets anyway. 🙁
In HTC’s defense, IMO this kind of guerrilla marketing is no worse than Samsung’s own advertisements re Apple. And given that HTC’s marketing budget is vastly outgunned, it’s no surprise that they’ve “piggybacked” onto a competitor’s event.
and soon we hear they were apparently hacked…
I think HTC were just commenting, to bad for some people every little comment has to motivated by market desires or the want to undermine someone else. the worst thing I have seen about HTC’s remarks has been the highly negative and nasty comments made by lesser people such as media people who seem to think they are an authority and know better than HTC or Samsung. seriously, this is a none issue that is hardly worth covering worse still are the people like me (Non Media) who comment their personal opinions as though they should be listened to and… Read more »
I guess HTC takes the “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” thing very seriously.
Very poor form indeed.. and very unprofessional. They made themselves look like a bunch of drunken HTC fanboys rather then representatives of a worldwide company.
Irregardless of there antics .. the s4 will outsell the one by millions. So take that and shove it in your ultrapixel HTC.. and and grow up!
looking at the pics, HTC clearly has the better device…
#GalaxyS3s
You mean better-looking device? I’d agree with that. For me, I think the S4 will win on performance and battery life, as well as developer/ROM support.
Dont think so mate.
Qualcomm release there sources, if the SGS Variant comes with the octo core then the source wont get released meaning, harder work for the devs.
Samsung have historically been better at supporting the community than HTC have. The SGS III was one of the first devices supported by CM10 and 10.1. On the other hand, HTC hate us.
That said, I would take the One over the SGS 4 in a heartbeat. It’s all about the design for me.