Graham Spencer, writing at MacStories:

But until now, it made no sense for Apple, with a large lead on other smartphones, to engage with competitors and go on a defensive (or offensive) marketing campaign around their product launches. Why would you want to highlight your competitors and risk the media perceiving your actions as trying to subvert a competitor’s launch? The risk would simply outweigh any potential reward. The difference now is that Samsung is not only perceived to be a significant threat to Apple, but they are also taking a substantial chunk of sales and profits from the smartphone market that would otherwise be Apple’s.

Good stuff as always from Spencer. We chatted about this very topic on the soon-to-be-released episode of The Impromptu.