That was the bold remark issued by freshly minted Samsung Philippines Mobile Head Eric Sulit when asked if they expect the Galaxy S4, the Korean technology firm’s latest flagship smartphone, to exceed the overwhelming performance of the Galaxy S3 last year.
“The Galaxy S3 was very strong in the Philippines, that is why we think the S4 will do even more and surpass its predecessor easily,” Sulit told InterAksyon.com during the local launch of Samsung’s most-anticipated smartphone.
“The problem right now is allocation, because we noticed that early on, the demand is so great already,” he added.
In just three months after launch, the Galaxy S3 already breached the 20 million mark and broke a lot of sales records made by its own predecessors. In November 2012, the Galaxy S3 officially claimed the coveted top smartphone title in the world, overtaking rival Apple’s just-launched iPhone 5.
Which is possibly why Samsung decided to stick with the same design philosophy with the S4. Sulit said they consciously stuck with the “organic” and tried-and-tested design of the S3, with a few minor changes in the body.
The S4, for example, is thinner at just 7.9 millimeters at its thickest point, while its Super AMOLED touchscreen display is a bit wider at 5 inches. The entire unit is wrapped with the same glossy plastic finish that have become hallmarks of the Galaxy S3 as well as the Galaxy Note 2, both released last year.
Quad-core variant
Aside from the build quality, Sulit revealed that the Philippine version of the Galaxy S4 will still be sporting a quad-core chip now made by Qualcomm in the form of the Snapdragon 600. The executive said that price was their main consideration, which enabled them to bring its retail price down to just P30,990.
“But of course, we felt that for the functionality, we could do with the quad-core (chip for the S4),” Sulit added. “The other consideration is LTE, since the local version includes the 2100 LTE band being used by both major telcos.”
Another variant, which carries the proprietary Exynos octa-core chip, is available in other countries. Sulit said they are looking into bringing the other variant to the Philippines as well, but issued no definite comments as of now.
Reports indicate that units will start selling in retail stores and with telco operators by May 5. Both Smart Communications and Globe Telecom have come out with their respective pricing plans for the Galaxy S4, with Smart offering a week-long promotion where interested subscribers can get the unit by signing up for Data Plan 1500.
Globe, on the other hand, is offering Samsung’s latest smartphone at Plan 1799, with a lock-in period of 30 months.
Aside from the high-performing chip, Samsung included a number of software enhancements with the S4, including:
- Smart Pause and Smart Scroll: based on the Smart Stay technology from the Galaxy S3, these two new features identifies and monitors eye movement and activates functions accordingly. Smart Pause will momentarily stop playing video when the user’s gaze moves away from the device, while Smart Scroll will move the page up or down when the user’s gaze reaches the bottom or top of the screen.
- Air View and Air Gesture: this software feature is powered by the IR gesture sensor that’s fitted with the new Galaxy S4. Air View allows you to hover your finger over content to display specific details about it, like opening an email or text message. Air Gesture, on the other hand, allows you to give swiping directions without even touching the phone.
- Group Play: Group Play will allow you to play music to up to 8 Galaxy S4 devices even without Internet connection.
- S Voice Drive: an improvement to the S Voice personal assistant introduced with the Galaxy S3, S Voice Drive aids in controlling the phone while driving by allowing to send and receive emails and text messages, as well as take and make calls, just by using voice commands.
- Dual Camera: Samsung has now made it so that certain applications, such as camera and video calling apps, can use both the front- and rear-facing camera at once.
- S Translator: This feature will allow live text-to-speech and speech-to-text translation of up to 8 languages using only the user’s voice input.
The company saw its share of the lucrative smartphone market surge to 39.6 percent in the third quarter of 2012, up from just 3.3 percent in late 2009 as it reportedly shipped more than 100 million units of its Galaxy S line as of January 2013.
source: interaksyon.com
