Samsung offers all US iPhone owners Galaxy S6 Edge+ ‘test drive’

Korean tech giant Samsung has wasted little time following up on the launch of its new Galaxy S6 edge+, with an aggressive promotion designed to entice US iPhone owners to defect.

The campaign is called ‘Samsung ultimate test drive’ and it invites any US iPhone owner to possess either an edge+ or a Note 5 for a month at the cost of just one dollar. It seems that Samsung will also provide an activated SIM card on any network. At the end of 30 days there is the chance to buy or return the device.

Samsung is desperate to reverse the current trend of decline in its share combined with growth in Apple’s – in effect a mass defection to its main rival. Samsung launched the edge+ after realising demand for the curved screen edge design was greater than it had anticipated. It was also a response to the lift Apple seems to have got from belatedly increasing the iPhone’s screen size, a feature that is especially popular in the all-important Chinese market.

This promotion seems to be restricted to the US for now, but if it goes well Samsung will surely be tempted to try it in China and Europe later in the year. The danger of such a scheme, of course, is that iPhone users take to social media to deride the Samsung devices during their ‘test drive’, so it will be interesting to see what kind of response this gets.