Samsung seems to have quite the inferiority complex when it comes to Apple. And the company takes every chance that it gets to remind us of that. The latest proof comes in the form of Samsung’s new anti-Apple promotion targeting a $19 polishing cloth. Apple released the cloth a few weeks ago, and it sold out immediately, prompting plenty of memes and jokes in the process. Apple reportedly expected huge demand for the polishing cloth.
We even saw a teardown of the cloth from iFixit, because of course. Samsung took its time to join in the mockery, poking fun at Apple with a free cloth promotion of its own. Of course, this is the same company that just started selling $1,500 jeans that have a designated pocket for a foldable phone.
There’s nothing wrong with Apple’s Polishing Cloth price
Apple’s Polishing Cloth might be the butt of jokes and memes, but there’s nothing actually wrong with the product. And Apple can sell the cloth for whatever price it desires. Any company can put any price tag on anything, whether it’s $19 for a polishing cloth or $1,500 for a pair of jeans. As long as customers buy the products, both of the companies could turn a profit.
Try to order a Polishing Cloth right now, and Apple will provide a January 12-26 shipping estimate. That’s how dire the situation is. People have flocked to buy Apple’s Polishing Cloth, snatching up all the available stock. Everyone else will have to figure out other ways to clean their iPhones, iPads, Macs, glasses, and whatever else the Polishing Cloth is good for.
Apple says it has a good reason for selling that cloth, as it’s made of “soft, non-abrasive” material that will work great on sensitive displays, including nano-texture glass.
The $1,500 Samsung jeans
I just said there’s nothing wrong with a $19 Polishing Cloth from Apple, so I must apply the same judgment to the Samsung and Dr Denim limited edition of the Z Flip Pocket Denim Jeans. And there isn’t. Samsung and its partners can sell any product it desires.
The point of these jeans is to make large pockets forgotten. As if fashion designers created pockets with phones in mind, and now that foldables exist they’re useless:
Who needs big pockets? They take up too much space, they don’t look stylish, and the latest phones slip and slide inside them. Redesigned so that they exclusively fit the Galaxy Z Flip3, the Z Flip Pocket Denim jeans make big pockets a thing of the past.
Comparatively, Apple doesn’t try to find a fancy excuse for the Polishing Cloth. It’s meant to do one thing. We have no idea if it works better than a regular cloth, but Apple says so. In contrast, the jeans want to eliminate large pockets.
The Z Flip Pocket Denim sells for AUD$ 1,499, but for that price, you also get the Galaxy Z Flip 3 phone for free. So, in reality, you get a free pair of jeans with your new Flip 3. That doesn’t make Samsung’s jeans any less gimmicky than Apple’s cloth.
You have to read through the entire press release to find out that the jeans come with the phone. And you have to buy the package from Dr Denim rather than Samsung’s website. That means paying upfront for the phone instead of taking advantage of all the deals available on Samsung’s website.
Unsurprisingly, the jeans are still in stock.
Samsung’s mock cloth campaign
Samsung ran a mock cloth campaign in Germany, with GalaxyClub first noting the promotion. Samsung offered a free cloth of its own to Samsung Members. Here’s what a Google translation of the promo says:
The Samsung Galaxy care cloth: 20 x 20 cm and velvety soft. It cleans the display of your Samsung Galaxy or other surfaces such as B. Monitors. It is available free of charge for you as a Samsung member.
Click on ‘Register now,’ follow the further steps of the registration and if you are one of the first 1000 participants, you will receive a Samsung Galaxy cleaning cloth in the mail after your data has been successfully checked.
That’s right, the free cloth came in limited quantities. Samsung isn’t about to offer a free cloth to anyone who’d ask. That’s not the point of this gimmicky campaign. And it turns out the 1,000 units already “sold out,” proving that people apparently want official cloth swag for their devices. Maybe Samsung will one day make its own Polishing Cloth alternative, priced accordingly.
After all, this isn’t the first time that Samsung has mocked Apple publicly, only to copy the iPhone feature it criticized in the first place while pretending it never did mock Apple. It happened with the headphone jack. Then the phone chargers. The Polishing Cloth might be next.
Here’s Samsung’s cloth deal for Germany:
