When you are in school or college, you are taught about the best ways to do things. It is generally about a point solution. Alternatives are rarely discussed in detail. One almost always looks for the best answer, the best method, the best algorithm. When you begin to work for a company, you almost always realize that the best solution is not what one is always looking for. Time and market pressures play a role in choosing solutions. You can choose a solution that suits the “taste of the target market“. When you serve more than one market, then it becomes interesting. Would you want to choose two different solutions for two different markets for the same product? This is one of the reasons that analysts cite regarding what Samsung has done with its Galaxy S4 smart phone. While the US and the Korean versions appear identical on the outside, they use quite a number of different components. Their processors, wireless and image processing architectures are different. Supposedly, the Korean version is faster and has a longer battery life because it uses Samsung’s Octacore Exynos 5 processor which has an architecture (read here) that helps to attain a balance of power efficient and performance more than the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in the US version. iSuppli’s IHS Teardown Service reveals all the component level differences between the two designs here.
A more plausible reason for the difference in the two architectures is the fact that the LTE bands supported by mobile operators in US and Korea are different (see here). The two processors (essentially system on chips in this case) may not support both the LTE bands. However, it does illustrate an important point related to engineering product design. It shows that you can design the same product with different architectures. While not related to S4, this analysis reminds me of regulations in certain countries which make it compulsory for a manufacturer to source components from local suppliers for products to be sold in the local market. An example is here. Therefore, as a manufacturer you can end up with different components in different markets for the same product.
I used to think that a consumer electronic item sold in different countries used the same components. That myth now stands broken! While you can easily spot the differences in software, prominent being the language used in user interface, it is not easy to spot differences in hardware.
On Research, Education and Computer Systems 