Not so smug now, are you? Samsung fans enjoy a bit of schadenfreude as 'Crackgate' batters Apple's rep.

The “Crackgate” scandal involving Apple’s iPhone Duo has revived long-simmering resentment toward the tech giant’s perceived smugness and the behavior of its more obnoxious fans, giving rival Samsung users particular reason to gloat.

"We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units," Apple said in a statement Monday.

The company said it would replace affected devices free of charge but did not disclose the issue's exact cause or the overall defect rate.

Apple has entered the foldable smartphone market seven years after Samsung Electronics and had earlier derided Samsung's first foldable phones as “cheap and crappy.”

For Apple, which entered the market as a latecomer emphasizing superior quality and refinement, the controversy shortly after the product's launch has dealt a blow to its reputation.

After Apple officially acknowledged the defect, an online community user criticized the company, saying it had “acted so smug, as if it had created the ultimate, flawless foldable phone.”

On another major online forum, a post titled “The current state of products Apple called innovative” drew around 1,000 comments, while another titled “What happened to Apple users who mocked Galaxy phones” attracted more than 700.

Many commenters said Apple got what it deserved.

The backlash has also spilled over to prominent tech YouTubers.

Tech YouTuber ITSub, who has 2.84 million subscribers, faced criticism for allegedly not adequately addressing durability concerns in an earlier review. In response, he ran a roughly three-hour durability test on a device he bought himself, including pouring sand into it and bending it backward.

But when he failed to reproduce the cracks, he faced a barrage of abusive comments accusing him of defending Apple, including insults directed at his family.

“I have never received a single won from Apple,” ITSub said, warning that he would take legal action against those spreading false allegations.

Behind the growing controversy lies a paradox of Apple's carefully cultivated image as a distinctive, premium brand.

Apple has long differentiated itself from competitors by emphasizing design, user experience and high product quality.

Among some devoted customers, the iPhone's distinctive aesthetic and appeal have also become symbols of sophisticated taste and personal identity.

Analysts say that while such a powerful brand image helps attract loyal customers, it can also backfire when problems emerge, amplifying the backlash.

In Korea, the rivalry between Apple and Samsung fans runs particularly deep.

Derogatory terms such as aepdeungi — a combination of the Korean pronunciation of Apple with gopdeungi, the Korean word for a camel cricket — used to mock iPhone users, and samyeopchung, meaning trilobite in Korean, used to disparage Galaxy users, have circulated online for more than a decade.

“Apple has maintained its own closed ecosystem, which some users have found inconvenient,” Lee Seong-yeob, a professor at Korea University's Graduate School of Management of Technology, said. “Resentment toward the ‘Apple myth’ and the blind devotion of some of its followers has erupted in the wake of this incident.”

Overseas research has identified similar patterns.

Rejection of the image and culture associated with Apple was found to fuel brand hatred more strongly than negative experiences with its products, according to a 2021 paper published in an international academic journal on brand management, titled "I can't stop hating you: an anti-brand-community perspective on Apple brand hate."

Another study suggested that the more strongly consumers identify with a particular brand, the more likely they are to experience “brand schadenfreude” when a rival brand suffers a setback, which they interpret as validation of their own purchasing decisions.

Schadenfreude refers to the psychological phenomenon of taking pleasure in another person's misfortune.

Some industry observers warn that the controversy could be particularly damaging precisely because Apple has long maintained a reputation for high product quality.

“As Apple undergoes a transition to John Ternus's leadership, a growing sense that ‘this isn't the Apple we used to know’ is already taking hold,” an electronics industry source said. “Now that a clear product defect has emerged, even the trust of Apple's most devoted fans is beginning to waver.”

BY LEE YOUNG-KEUN [[email protected]]