Apple created an ecosystem - the Applesphere - long before its full ramifications had been considered. Steve Jobs knew that if he could get just one device, whether Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod, or whatever,  into your hands it would lead to other Apple devices because they all worked together so well.

You built a music, video or apps collection from iTunes – sorry these only work on iOS, not Android. That is a big investment to throw away, if you switch.

You use iWorks – Pages, Numbers, and Keynote – and you give up trying to keep Microsoft Office compatibility. These work flawlessly as part of iCloud and that works flawlessly with all Apple devices, but not so with many others.

You buy a nice home theatre system and find that everything works with iOS and AirPlay, and little works with Android or, heaven forbid, BlackBerry or Windows Phone (even though these are DLNA standard). Apple TV - over almost any other DLNA media server – just works.

You buy a printer that supports AirPrint and voilà, all your Apple devices can print to it.

You buy a sound dock or alarm clock radio and it has the Apple 30pin connector (and a Lightning adaptor) for full integration – something that you cannot do with a 3.5mm cable, so scratch Android et al.

Apple have the best, most well rounded ecosystem, and the moment you let one device into your life you will find it increasingly hard to resist.

‘Apple cares about more than just creating a consistent and unique experience for each of their devices individually. Apple has created a more complete and user-friendly ecosystem that encompasses much more than the features or abilities of a single phone. For many iPhone owners, the question is more than just upgrading a phone to the next great thing. It is also about how much one has totally invested in Apple as a whole.’ Gigaom’s Geoffrey Goetz.

Samsung is a late entrant, and using commercial might it has developed superior hardware, spent squillions on marketing, and now owns a very large part of the computing ecosphere. It is number one in smartphones, tablets, PC monitors, smart TVs (including Blu-Ray and home theatre products), and home appliances - washing machines, air conditioners, microwaves ovens and refrigerators. It is not far from owing the point and shoot camera market - arguably it does if you count smartphone cameras - and the home printer market.

Commercial might, and flooding the market with a plethora of products - there are 35 smartphone, 78 camera, and 88 smart TV variants available in Australia – means it is a Samsung world.

What does this mean?

A few weeks ago, I went to a low key, Samsung event, where WatchON (smartTV interface) was demonstrated. Whether intentional or not the presenter said that Samsung no longer was concerned about what the rest of the world did – if you enter the ‘Sammysphere’ everything will be interoperable. WatchON is a brilliant reason to buy Samsung TVs but now it hooks in its smartphones and tablets as well. Simply put, it allows you to watch video-on-demand on your smart phone or tablet, and then sit down and relax while you continue it on the big screen. Space does not allow an in-depth review but suffice to say that if you have a Samdroid phone, tablet, and TV (and I suspect future sound systems, PCs etc.) you can seamlessly share your content.

Like Apple, it all only works on Samsung devices – and it makes a few pennies from every purchase.

Similarly Samsung's heavily customised Samdroid smartphones offer so many other compelling features over vanilla Android that it would be hard to switch.

This article started with the premise that Apple et al are all making it damned hard to switch. It’s the old ‘printer and ink’ scenario, where you make no money from the printer sale but make it from ink. Samsung has the might to buy market share with great value products and makes its money from content distribution and advertising.

As Samsung said at the OLED TV launch, “More than 85% of its smart TVs are now connected online. Ad click$ (revenue generation) exceed 2 million per month (up from ½ million last year). The average selling price for smart TVs is four times that of standard TVs.”

Resistance is futile.