Samsung will unveil their much-hyped Galaxy S IV phone Thursday, but one of Apple's top execs decided to preempt the event by going on the attack.
Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing, criticized Android -- and Samsung by association -- in interviews with Bloomberg, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
"Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn't as good as an iPhone," Schiller said in the interview with the Journal.
In particular, Schiller criticized Android for fragmentation (noting that only 16% of Android users are on the latest operating system) and an overly complicated experience of setting up and using the devices.
While Schiller focuses on Android, he does mention Samsung by name at least once in the interviews, telling Reuters that the "Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumored to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old."
Schiller's statements come after months of reports that Samsung is catching up to or beating Apple in smartphone shipments in many markets. Still, it's a risky move for Apple. By acknowledging Samsung and Android directly, Schiller and Apple effectively gives them even more publicity and shows that it's concerned. That's why we don't see more Apple ads directly attacking Samsung, according to one former Apple marketing guru.
Even before the interviews, Schiller subtly went after Android in a tweet this week -- his first in more than three months -- which linked to a report about mobile security concerns with Android devices.
Be safe out there: f-secure.com/static/doc/lab…— Philip Schiller (@pschiller) March 7, 2013