Apple is launching the iPhone 7 in September and Samsung is devising a new scheme to further blur the lines between the two brands psychologically. Later this year Samsung is to debut their next-gen Galaxy Note 6. But that's a number behind Apple's iPhone 7 which some think makes the Galaxy product sound outdated. So Samsung has decided to skip the Note S6 brand and leap to the Note S7 to appear on par with Apple's iPhone 7 in the market. This is the first time Samsung Electronics is jumping over a number since it started releasing Galaxy Smartphones, reports ETNews.

On another psychological front, the Korean market wants to downplay and neutralize the Apple iPhone 7 from gaining mania power this fall as the iPhone 6 did two years ago. Yesterday Korean-based KT Economy & Management Research Lab put out a report to begin the smartphone propaganda war of 2016. The report stated that "The iPhone 7 will not be able to create a big success in advanced markets because current smartphone functions are already good enough. Apple is changing its focus on emerging markets." The Korean news site carefully chose a photo for their report from OvalPictures as noted in our cover graphic which is designed to downplay the iPhone 7's appeal by basically saying it's going to be boringly evolutionary.

The BusinessKorea report further noted that "The research center expected that Apple would not be able to release an innovative product which far surpasses the previous iPhone 6. It said 'As the company is focusing on emerging markets due to the burden of performance, it is now hard to put up both innovation and performance. There are market expectations that Apple will release an innovative product in 2017 to mark the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. However, it is hard to expect an innovation just like the first appearance of the iPhone as technology has leveled upward. Android-based devices in the market are also providing sufficient convenience.'"

That's a funny perspective considering that the 2014 Samsung smartphone of the day provided "sufficient convenience" for consumers and yet the iPhone 6 steamrolled over it with sufficient ease and laughed at the one-time phablet king.

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