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I Spent A Week In Spain And Almost No One Was Using An iPhone

I just got back from a 10-day vacation in Spain.

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I got to visit Barcelona, Valencia, and Madrid.

It was a lot of fun!

But when I wasn't stuffing my face with paella and pork products, I took some time to check out what kind of gadgets people were using. To my surprise, I saw more Samsung smartphones out in the wild than I have anywhere else.

iPhones were almost nonexistent, except at this one coffee shop in Valencia where it seemed like everyone was tapping away at one.

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The most popular device was easily the Galaxy S II. One of my cab drivers had one and used the Google Translate app to help me find the word for "Ostrich" in Spanish. (Long story.)

I even saw three Galaxy Notes. (That's three more Notes than I've seen people using in public, period.)

Of course this is all just anecdotal evidence. Maybe more people Spain really do own iPhones. Maybe HTC is the king. (I saw a lot of HTC Ones as well.) But the Samsung brand seemed to permeate most of the mobile tech I saw in Spain. It was very refreshing for this American to see.

By the way, I was also lucky enough to be in Spain during the Galaxy S III's european launch on March 29. People were going nuts for it. (I only got to play with one for a few minutes, but it seems like an amazing phone.)

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In fact, I saw massive advertising for the phone all over the place, including this huge poster on the side of a building in Madrid:

samsung galaxy s iii big banner in madrid
Sorry for the bad photo. I snapped this from the car as we were driving by. Steve Kovach, Business Insider
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