“Samsung Electronics unveiled a new top-of-the-range Galaxy smartphone in London on Thursday, updating the most direct rival to Apple’s iPhone with a larger touch screen and more powerful processor,” Paul Sandle and Tarmo Virki report for Reuters. “Samsung said the new Galaxy SIII model would go on sale in some markets in late May and around the world from June. The new Galaxy SIII model will have a 4.8 inch touch screen, 8 megapixel camera and will use the latest version of Google’s Android software.”
Sandle and Virki report, “Analysts said the expected massive marketing campaign and features of the handset – billed as the official smartphone of the London 2012 Olympics – were likely enough to generate strong sales, but the launch left many of them unexcited. ‘It is not an eye-catching device that will overwhelm consumers,’ said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo… ‘Samsung must make the most of a 4-5 month window of opportunity with the Galaxy SIII before Apple changes the game once more with its next generation iPhone,’ said Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight.”
“The new Galaxy will be powered by Samsung’s quad-core microprocessor [Exynos 4 Quad, based on British chip designer ARM Holdings Cortex A9], which the company hopes will also be used in handsets made by HTC and Motorola, as well as Apple, its biggest customer for components,” Sandle and Virki report.
Read more in the full article here.
The extra-large screen is just an excuse (disguised as a “feature”) for the Samsung not being able to miniaturize as expertly as Apple.
I wonder what it looks like when held in the hand of a normal sized woman.
Yeah, with that screen size, more like trying to rival iPad.
It’s probably like holding a Sony Discman to your ear.
LOL ken – good attack – funny.
I for one do not have the big fingers, however, I disagree with you ken1w. A bigger screen is no disguise nor failure regarding technology. And not to defend Samsung, a bigger unit actually puts them less likely in the copier machine scenario, plus bigger fingers will prefer this direction. Let Samsung fill themselves with air. Phones are not to be big devices. Shirnk it to th seize of a wrist watch and let Siri handle everything while Samsung decides to go bigger – all that will be achieved is a mini tablet. Apple has two solutions in place, iPad and iPhone – they will be fine.
Samsung samexit , no nada, niente. Capute
what no picture gf this huge mother of a phone ?
Article says, “left many of them unexcited”, no one has seen it yet.
I’m still amazed Samsung supposedly sold so many smartphones. When I look around 50% of the phones I see in public transport are iPhones. I barely see any Samsung Galaxy Sxxxx.
These people don’t want to be labeled so they keep them hidden in public.
How can you tell them apart? You really have to look hard to tell the difference. I guess you have to look at the user’s face to see the telltale drool hanging from the slack jawed sap who bought the wrong phone.
Samsung is #1 smartphone seller in second, third world. Apple leads by far in the first world: USA, Europe, Japan, Australia, et cetera.
Most likely correct…
But the issue remains Samsung appeals to 1st, 2nd and 3rd world markets for several reasons.
OPEN NETWORK – REPLACEABLE BATTERY – MICRO SD – PRICE
Question becomes profit of sales.
Apple wins by offering less open options and less models to manage. A higher perceived value is worthy of a prestigious item. Sell quality and value and security even if the phone costs the same to make. Invest in a long life run for a good design avoids costs to re-tool every year. Stay on top of leading technologies and control the flow of that resource.
If you are an Artist and you paint a few pictures; better you sell to the highest buyer. Not nickel and dime like a starving artist on the streets selling the same painting four hundred thousand times over. 1 at a high price or 4,000 at a low – which is easier work – which is more profitable?
“sold to stores” is not the same
measure as “sales to customers”.
C/NET, you know, those guys who have zero real journalist are loving this POS from Samsung and Google.
I saw one today. Wife’s daughter had one she bought from T-mobile last month. She says it’s really slow. Takes forever to get to home screen, forever to get to messaging, etc. And when held to her face it often ends the call. She can somehow switch over to something else to prevent that, but then it takes several taps just to get where she can talk and several more just to hang up. Sounds like a great phone.
False story Wingsy.
@Wingsy
You have been using Time Machine on our Mac again haven’t you.
It’s early May. Nice try. “Galaxy SIII model would go on sale in some markets in late May and around the world from June.”
Reminds me of an old joke when Adam looked down and said to Eve, “Stand back, we do not know how big this thing is going to get!”
Ha, snake of sam sung guy.
I’m excited
Too big. Period.
Red Riding hood. The grandiose wolf with his bigger nose, sharper teeth, and big eyes, “all the better see you with my sweetie.” Size didn’t matter much for King Kong or Godzilla either.
Pentile display, no five lens optics, slow graphic co-processor, very big, not that great visual design.
However, SGS3 is significantly faster in integer calculations (not that it is that important comparing to GPU speeds, which are needed for heavy multimedia and graphics applications).
where is a picture?
In a Pentile Matrix layout, each green sub-pixel shares a red and blue sub-pixel with those around it, creating a picture that’s less sharp. According to some, this lowers the screen fidelity by about 30%, at least on a technical level. The black spacing in the grid system creates an illusion that the screen is more brilliant when actually it has more contrast. A retina screen is far Superior.
When will Apple start making its own CPU in its own factory?
never, where did you dream that up?
we got slates, we got pods, we got pads, we got tabs – and now we have Slabs!
i don’t think so.
Now we have lost Balmer’s Left Nut forever. What a relief.
I’m in midst of a 10-day stay in Seoul, Korea – part of a 3-week trip that will include China. Obviously, the SIII announcement is getting a lot of press but I don’t see that the people are all that excited. There seems to be an upgrade fatigue building. I mean, how long ago was it that Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note? Or the last Galaxy II? What about the Nexus? Who can stay on top of all this stuff?
I’ve been moving about a lot in Seoul over the past several days and have made the effort to observe the mobile devices in use in the subway trains, coffee houses, bars & restaurants, on crowded streets, etc. There’s no doubt Samsung dominates in the sheer number of devices used but, at the same time, the only other noticeable brand here in Seoul besides Samsung is definitely Apple.
From my general observations, it seems Samsung devices are at around 80% but that also includes the dumb feature phones used by the older folks who don’t want to mess with touch screens. Also, the Samsung-Apple mix changes depending on the neighborhood around Seoul. Basically, the swankier the neighborhood the more iPhones you see. If the neighborhood (and that includes certain subway lines) isn’t high income, you don’t see as many iPhones.
Demographically speaking, iPhones are certainly more popular amongst the younger crowd (20’s to early-30’s) and especially the women. I’d say at least 60% of the iPhones I’ve seen were being used by women and they tended to be on the more attractive side than the women using Samsung phones. Subjective statement, I know, but that’s how I saw it. From what I’ve been able to gather, the iPhone is definitely for the younger and hipper crowd.
As far as tablets, a tablet the size of the iPad isn’t that common in subway cars. But when I did see a 10″-size tablet, around 70% was the iPad. I saw a decent number of Samsung’s 7~8″ tablets but even that was less than half of the iPads I saw in use. So this pretty much confirms how dominant the iPad is even in Samsung’s home turf. The Android tablet definitely is having a hard time getting any traction anywhere.
What was interesting is that most people using Samsung smartphones don’t seem to have any problems using 4.3″-and-up screens. Even women typically had those large screen phones and it didn’t seem to bother them at all. I also saw a decent number of men using those funny looking 5″ Galaxy Notes. I’d say around 1 out of every 10 Samsung smartphones in use were that variety. It really does look goofy when you see them use it as a phone held against their faces but I guess they don’t care.
Anyway, that’s what I’m seeing here in Seoul and it is one technological marvel of a city. This country is completely wired with the fastest Internet speeds and it seems that 4G LTE covers every nook and cranny of the nation as well. There are large display screens virtually everywhere you turn – bus stops, subway stations, elevators inside an apartment building, stores, restaurants, etc. with schedules, news feeds, menus, etc. Pretty amazing… I’ve traveled to a lot of places around the world and even Japan looks like it’s at least a decade behind South Korea from this perspective.
But it seems that high-tech is so pervasive here that people now take it for granted. It isn’t all that exciting to people. It’s just a tool or a utility like electricity or water. Again, this is where Samsung doesn’t match up with Apple. Samsung just isn’t sexy when they also make microwave ovens, washers/dryers, dumb TVs, etc. as well as selling life insurance, building apartment complexes and treating patients at their own-branded hospitals. Sorry to say, Samsung is just an outright boring company…
It’s so cute that Apple’s competitors still think they can win by out-spec’ing Apple. You know, like how the iPod was crushed by all those other players that had FM radios and played WMV.
——RM
They’re still trying to fix they’re battery life issue so the bigger screen is only there because they need a bigger device to hide they’re bigger battery.