Samsung's chief strategy officer admits to using Apple's iPhone, iPad & Mac at home

One of the top executives at Apple's chief rival, Samsung, has admitted that he uses an iPhone, iPad and Mac at home, largely due to Apple's "sticky" ecosystem.

Young Sohn admitted his personal preference for Apple's tightly connected ecosystem in an interview with MIT Technology Review, published on Thursday. Sohn began working as president and chief strategy officer at Samsung in August out of Silicon Valley in California.

Sohn acknowledged that Apple is a "very innovative company," and noted that Apple is a customer of Samsung's as well as a fierce competitor. He said he's always used a Mac, along with an iPhone and an iPad, because Apple's ecosystem is "sticky," making it convenient to buy in to the company's product lineup.

The Samsung executive said he believes customers are even more drawn to Apple's ecosystem, with services like iCloud, than they are to the products themselves. He said the Galaxy Nexus is a "better phone" than the iPhone, but added that the "connected ecosystem is really critical."

"At work I'm using Samsung devices; Apple at home, mainly because all of my systems and files are done that way," Sohn admitted. "That's sticky, you know? However, I did figure out how to sync all of my contacts and all of my schedules between the two different systems. You can do it. It's a bit of work, but it's possible."

Going forward, Sohn said he would like to see Samsung offer a more complete experience than it currently does. He said Samsung provides more devices that consumers interact with than anyone in the world, but Samsung's current philosophy is 'device-centric."

"It's experienced by itself. It's not experienced in a connected way," he said. "So we think we can provide a lot more things than what we are doing today with an open ecosystem with our partners."

Samsung is one of the main component suppliers for Apple, but Apple is believed to be making an effort to move away from reliance on Samsung as the two companies have grown in competition with one another.

Officials at Apple are particularly upset by what they see as blatant copying of devices like the iPhone and iPad in Samsung's product lineup. A jury in California agreed with Apple in August and ruled that Samsung had infringed on Apple's patented designs, hitting Samsung with $1.05 billion in damages.