Samsung Picked the Right Moment to Challenge Apple - Wall Street Journal (blog)

By Evan Ramstad

How Samsung Electronics Co. caught up and passed Apple Inc. in smartphones — something no other company has done — can partly be seen through an ad campaign that Samsung started running in late 2011.

In one ad, which shows people lining up outside what looks like an Apple retail store, one man in line lustfully looks at a smartphone held by someone who is hailing a cab and asks, "What is that?"

"Samsung," comes the reply. "Is this what adultery feels like?" another asks as people crowd around the Samsung Galaxy device.

Samsung appears to have done something all companies dream about, but few companies can execute: It delivered a breakthrough product — the Galaxy S smartphone line — at the moment when demand was taking off, and then promoted that product with advertising that broke through the clutter. Result: Samsung is now No. 1 in smartphones just as the devices are breaking into the mainstream. More in the full post.