When you're trying to convince the world how awesome your smartphone is, nothing can be more frustrating than that world seeing the Olympic athletes you're sponsoring using someone else's device. Samsung's solution for this problem at the Sochi Olympic opening ceremonies is to deny reality and require athletes using iPhones to cover the Apple logo.
This was, apparently, a condition set by Samsung in exchange for sponsoring the Olympics in Sochi, a sponsorship that includes giving the athletes free Galaxy Note 3 devices. According to German-language site Bluewin (Google Translation), one of the conditions of that sponsorship is that athletes taking part in the much-ballyhooed opening ceremonies cover up the Apple logos on their iPhones.
In the age of the smartphone, while the public lavishes its attention on the Olympics, many athletes are themselves recording the event that's taking place all around them. All those happy, smiling, super fit folks holding up their devices makes for a compelling marketing message.
The problem for Samsung is that many of those devices are, of course, iPhones, and the idea of all those Apple logos being seen was apparently too much for the Suits at Samsung. Their answer? Cover up the truth and hope no one notices.
And really, that's kind of Samsung's modus operandi in a nutshell.
[Via Slashgear]
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