Samsung puts firepower behind Galaxy As Samsung embarks on what some in the telecoms industry believe is the most expensive launch yet of a smartphone, even former members of Apple's camp have acknowledged the Galaxy maker's success in building hype to rival the iPhone. Ken Segall, who as creative director at Apple's ad agency worked on its "Think Different" campaign in the late 1990s and gave the iMac its name, said this week that Samsung's recent marketing has "resonated" while Apple's has become "boring." Samsung is doing what Apple had always been known for. They're getting people to talk about their products," Mr Segall wrote in a blog post this week, ahead of the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4. It used humour to capitalise on the growing feeling that Apple has become too big and less innovative. Plus it put tons of cash behind its campaign. Samsung comfortably outspent Apple on marketing last year and telecoms industry insiders say that the Galaxy S4 launch will set a new high water mark for smartphone advertising spending. Ad budgets in some countries will run into tens of millions of dollars, with Samsung's total for the Galaxy S4 expected to exceed $150m globally, they say. That compares with $108m spent by Apple on marketing the iPhone 5 last year, according to Kantar media monitoring. Although Apple has not announced a March iPad launch, or a similar product unveiling to counter Samsung's event, as some had expected, the iPhone maker has not remained silent. In a rare pair of interviews with Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, Phil Schiller, Apple's marketing chief, criticised Google's Android smartphone software for being harder to use than the iPhone. Google said yesterday that a total of 750m Android devices had been activated, a figure increasing by around 1.5m per day. "At Apple we know that it's not just enough to have products pumped out in large numbers," Mr Schiller told Reuters. You have to love and use them. Although he did not mention Samsung directly, he also took a swipe at larger-screened phones, such as the Galaxy Note series. "The reason that people are making their devices bigger is to get up to the battery life the iPhone 5 offers," he told the WSJ. Nonetheless, Android is winning some high-profile converts. Daniel Ek, chief executive of music service Spotify and a longstanding Apple admirer, said in a discussion on Twitter this week that Android "is the way forward" with "new awesome phones" coming out. A significant supplier of components to Apple products, Samsung has mimicked some of its marketing tricks ahead of the Galaxy S4 launch. It has increased the secrecy around its device when talking to its operator partners, by distributing screens to show off its software features but holding back on revealing the casing and overall design of the Galaxy S4 until Thursday's unveiling. But while Apple's marketing and launch events tend to focus on the product, Samsung is putting on a more glitzy affair to introduce the S4. With coverage on giant screens in Times Square, Samsung's choice of venue - New York's Radio City Music Hall - reflects the company's confidence that it has gained the upper hand in its battle with Apple. Only sales figures will prove the winner of this head-to-head battle, but some analysts have predicted that the Galaxy S4 could sell as many as 10m units in its first month. Additional reporting by Emily Steel in New York