The Olympics, that fine celebration of sport, is an event that gets watched by millions around the world. Samsung, looking to capitalize on having so many people watching their country attempt to grab a gold medal, is sponsoring the Olympics. What does that mean for you? You’re likely going to see a Samsung commercial every 15 minutes for the entire duration of the event, and you’ll also see “limited edition” Olympic versions of devices being released for people who need to feel that they’re special because they own something that the rest of the public can’t purchase. Enter the Olympic Edition Galaxy Note and Galaxy Y. They look exactly like the regular Galaxy Note and Galaxy Y, except that the back of the device has a battery cover with an English the Union Flag on it. That’s it. The box the Galaxy Note comes in says “Free Exclusive Back!”, which is quite possibly the biggest let down in promotional history.
What would have been better? How about a voucher to the Google Play store so people can download free apps, games, movies, whatever? Or how about slapping a custom theme onto the device so that it has that sport vibe? And then there’s the obvious missed opportunity, to bundle Olympic applications, applications that tell folks about London, and so on and so forth.
As far as we can tell, there’s no price difference between the normal versions of these products and their “Limited Olympic Edition” counterparts, which is great, because there’s nothing really bundled inside that’s worth buying.
Expect to hear about a Galaxy S III Olympic device at some point in the near future. That thing is going to be advertised so much that instead of counting sheep jumping over a fence in your dreams, you’ll be counting Samsung smartphones rolling off the assembly line of some factory in South Korea.