Apple Marketing VP Still Bad-Mouthing Android, Samsung Galaxy S IV

Apple must really feel the competition heating up, because Phil Schiller just can’t say enough about Android these days. In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Schiller — Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing — said that most Android users are running old software because updates are slow to roll out.

“With their own data, only 16 percent of Android users are on year-old version of the operating system,” Schiller said. “Over 50 percent are still on software that is two years old. A really big difference.”

It’s important to note that each Android OS update needs to be tested for several different hardware makers to make sure it’s right for each one.

Further, Schiller trash talked the new Samsung Galaxy S IV, saying that it will be shipped with a year-old operating system because Android has a fragmentation issue.

“And that extends to the news we are hearing this week that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumored to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old,” Schiller said. “Customers will have to wait to get an update.”

Android version install base as of March 4, 2013 [Image Source: Android.com]
Despite Schiller’s comments, Android-powered smartphones currently hold greater worldwide market share than Apple’s iPhone. Apple’s iPhone only represented about 19 percent of worldwide smartphone shipments in 2012 while all Android-powered smartphones accounted for about 70 percent.

But Schiller has an answer for that, too.

“At Apple we know that it’s not just enough to have products pumped out in large numbers,” Schiller said. “You have to love and use them. There is a lot of data showing a big disparity there.”

Schiller was bad-mouthing Android earlier this week in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, where he said that iPhone users are more satisfied with their smartphone experience than Android users and that Androids are the kinds of phones given as free replacements to feature phones. He added that Android phones make you “sign up for nine accounts” out of the box because it isn’t as seamless of an experience as iOS — where Apple is responsible for both hardware and software.

Apple’s Phil Schiller posing with an iPad mini
It’s interesting that Apple is starting to dig into Samsung and Android right around the release of the Samsung Galaxy S IV, which is due to make its first appearance today at the 7 p.m. ET launch event at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan. The Samsung Galaxy S III made a big splash in the smartphone world, and the greater specs of the Galaxy S IV should mean increased popularity of the line.

The Samsung Galaxy S IV will feature a 5.0-inch 1080p display, a 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor (or a 2GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos 5450 processor for the international version), 2GB of RAM, 16/32/64GB storage options, a removable SD card slot for up to 64GB, a 13MP rear-facing camera with Orb technology for compressed panorama shots, a 2MP front-facing camera with eye scrolling technology, 4G LTE connectivity, Bluetooth 4.0, 3100 mAh battery and of course the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system. 

Apple has hard a hard time keeping up the momentum of its products, and it shows in the company’s shares. Apple shares have fallen from $702.10 in September to $428.35 as of this week.