Samsung

New Samsung Galaxy S4 TV ad: Not your parents' iPhone

At a graduation pool party, all the cool kids have the "next big thing"

FORTUNE -- It takes 1:30 for Samsung to demonstrate the Galaxy S4 feature set -- which includes, apparently, Smell-O-Vision -- by which it intends to reverse Apple's (AAPL) growing lead in the U.S. smartphone market.

See also: Apple's new iPhone ad

Pie charts of the day: Tablet sales grew 140% year over year

Apple's iPad sales grew 65%. Samsung's shipments, according to IDC, grew 280%.

FORTUNE -- How do you make the fact that sales of Apple's (AAPL) iPad grew 65% -- from 11.8 million to 19.5 million -- look bad?

You bury it under a headline that points out, as several reports did, that its market share dipped below 40% for the first time.

The data come from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, which took iPad MORE

iPhone 5 vs. Galaxy 4S videos: Drop tests or IQ tests?

Reading the comments on these smackdowns, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

FORTUNE -- The outcome of the many drop tests that have surfaced on YouTube comparing the ruggedness of the Samsung Galaxy S4 with that of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone 5 was never really in doubt.

In falls that shatter the screen of the new Galaxy, pop its back off and kill its camera, the iPhone 5 takes a licking MORE

Videos: How Samsung draws a crowd for the Galaxy S4 launch

We didn't see customers queuing up, but we did spot some entertaining YouTubes.

FORTUNE -- Samsung doesn't have Apple's (AAPL) network of company-owned stores to draw lines of customers, but it's found others ways to attract crowds for the launch of its latest Galaxy smartphone.

Below: Highlights from the Galaxy S4 Worldtour.

Seoul:

Johannesburg:

Mumbai:

New Delhi:

Vancouver:

New York City:

See also: Samsung's event marketing makes Apple's hype look tame.

ChangeWave: Galaxy S4 to spark a record Samsung surge

"Explosive" interest in buying Samsung smartphones approaches iPhone levels in U.S.

FORTUNE -- As the Galaxy S4 rolls out in the U.S. this week, Samsung is likely to experience its fourth and biggest wave yet of smartphone buying, according to a proprietary ChangeWave poll of early-adopter types conducted between March 21 and April 2.

The results from the survey of 4,011 ChangeWave members, which we obtained Saturday, were released to subscribers two weeks ago. MORE

Is Samsung spamming Twitter?

A Galaxy S4 vs. iPhone 5 "shootout" got reported with dozens of identical tweets.

FORTUNE -- Students of screen display technology look forward to the testing laboratory reports of DisplayMate's Dr. Raymond M. Soneira. The one he published Thursday was particularly interesting because it compared the screen of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 with both its predecessor, the Galaxy S3, and its main competitor, the iPhone 5.

His conclusion: The OLED screen MORE

Pie charts of the day: The cellphone market's 4% growth

For the first time, says IDC, more smartphones were shipped than feature phones.

FORTUNE -- The headline of IDC's quarterly report on the state of the global mobile phone market Friday was that smartphone shipments, on the strength of their 41.6% year over year growth, overtook feature phones for the first time. The overall cellphone market, by contrast, grew an anemic 4%.

"Phone users want computers in their pockets," says IDC's Kevin Restivo.

With the usual caveat MORE

Did an Apple 2.0 story touch a nerve at Samsung HQ?

A piece about Samsung's agent provocateurs seems to have stirred up a hornets nest

FORTUNE -- A funny thing happened on this site Sunday afternoon, Korea Standard Time.

On Saturday, following Samsung Taiwan's admission that it had paid anonymous posters to trash a competitor's products on Taiwanese social media sites, I posted a story about the growing suspicion among Apple (AAPL) investors that Samsung was engaged in a similar campaign against Apple MORE

How much are Samsung's dirty tricks hurting Apple's shares?

Conspiracy theories grow after charges it funded agent provocateurs in three countries.

FORTUNE -- There's a somewhat paranoid theory being circulated among Apple (AAPL) investors in the wake of the company's seven-month, $296-billion loss in market value.

It goes something like this:

Revealed as a patent copycat last summer by a California jury's $1.05 billion verdict -- a PR disaster of the first order that shook top management and tarnished the image of MORE

Say it ain't so, Samsung

Accused of hiring students to post negative comments about rival HTC's phones.

FORTUNE -- Readers who post comments critical of Apple (AAPL) in this space are often accused of being shills for Samsung, provocateurs paid to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about Samsung's chief U.S. competitor.

With rare exceptions -- a guy who called himself The_Truth_Hurts comes to mind -- I prefer to assume those charges are false. There are plenty of MORE