The South Korean conglomerate Samsung has confirmed that a major media event will take place on March 14 in New York, about two weeks after the currently-running 2013 Mobile World Congress wraps up in Barcelona, Spain. The company confirmed to Reuters that the press conference is a launchpad for a Galaxy S III successor, the Galaxy S IV.
Samsung Monday morning sent out invites to select members of the press to “come and meet” the next Galaxy at the March 14 Unpacked event. The somewhat reliable Jefferies analyst Peter Misek estimates Samsung’s enormous build plan calls for a hundred million Galaxy S IV shipments from a March-April launch until the end of the year…
According to Reuters, the press conference is filed as Samsung’s first U.S. launch of the flagship Galaxy smartphone in three years.
The news gathering organization quotes Samsung’s mobile chief JK Shin who said the company was inundated with requests from wireless carriers in the United States:
We introduced the Galaxy S III in London last year, and this time we changed the venue (to New York). As we were bombarded with requests from U.S. mobile carriers to unveil the Galaxy S IV in the country.
Samsung launched the Galaxy S III at a media event in London in May of last year. The phone moved 30 million units in five months and 40 million units in seven months, Samsung said. Apple unveiled its iPhone 5 in September 2012.
Both rivals have been slugging it out for the title of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer, regularly exchanging positions at the top. According to a Strategy Analytics survey, Apple during the all-important 2012 holiday quarter has reclaimed its top spot as the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S each outsold Samsung’s Galaxy S III.
A leaked image said to represent the Galaxy S IV.
The new Galaxy should arrive in March or April, ahead of Apple’s next iPhone refresh, the iPhone 5S, believed to launch around summer. Supply chain reports indicate Apple cut orders for components amid a seasonal drop off in iPhone demand.
The iPhone 5S is likely entering manufacturing in March. It should re-use the iPhone 5’s form factor while gaining a higher-resolution camera, a faster CPU/GPU via a new A7 chip and more. Apple and Samsung yesterday both aired high-profile commercials during the Oscars, Apple advertising apps for filmmakers in its iPad commercial and Samsung featuring director Tim Burton in its Galaxy devices ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8pj3WQyOzY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlal4UUxoiE
Meanwhile, rumor mills have been steadily churning out tidbits regarding the Galaxy S IV. The fourth-generation Galaxy phone should have a 4.99-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display designed to outshine the iPhone’s 326ppi Retina display with a pixel density of 440 pixels per inch.
A quad-core processor is also being mulled, possibly even Samsung’s new 1.8GHz eight-core Exnoys 5 Octa processor with 2GB of RAM. Other features may include a better 13-megapixel camera, in addition to the existing S III capabilities such as wireless charging, LTE and NFC.
Samsung has built an iPhone-like hype ahead of the launch and Misek even fears that Samsung’s component and manufacturing needs will be so demanding that the upcoming S IV launch could pull resources away from the next iPhone.
Samsung is still a critical supplier of components for Apple products.
Invite graphics top of post via 9to5Google.