This may be hard for a ZDNet reader to imagine, but most of the world does not own a smartphone.

Of those people who do, most did not recognize the device's name before purchasing it. They tapped and swiped and looked at the price and made a decision from the gut.

We can discuss technical specifications, features, shipping dates and price all day long, but an important component of the success of Samsung's new flagship mobile device -- the Galaxy S4 phone -- is that it is the definitive flagship. It is difficult not to understate the importance of this in a world where the phone store resembles the toothpaste aisle of a pharmacy: too many options from which to choose, with analysis paralysis to quickly follow.

Samsung Galaxy S4

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The supply chain halo effect
For years, the Google bid to steal Apple's mobile supremacy was stymied by its own competing hardware partners. Content with shipping numerous models with slightly different specifications, the Motorolas, HTCs, LGs and Samsungs of the world flooded the market. Though Google's operating system now enjoys the most adoption in the market as a result, it is still very much a fragmented existence, on both the software and hardware fronts -- leaving the consumer to wonder: if I want an iPhone that's not an iPhone, which one is the best?

This is a question that I and many of my colleagues have been entertaining from friends and others for the last few years. The answer changes: sometimes it's a "Droid" of some kind, for a time it was an "Evo" or a "Nexus," lately it's been a "Galaxy." Either way, it's not apparent at the store.

The upside to Google's multi-partner approach? It's a brute force attack. The downside? Consumers are left dazed and confused. Because the alternative is always, simply, "the new iPhone."

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