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SAMSUNG’S latest fagship Galaxy smartphone goes on sale this week, as the South Korean giant seeks to cement its lead over faltering US rival Apple in an increasingly saturated market.
The Galaxy S4, armed with eye motion control technology that will pause a video when the user looks away, comes with a faster chip and is thinner and lighter than the previous S3 model.
Unveiled last month at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, the touch-screen device goes on sale in South Korea and rolled out globally at the weekend.
The release of the Galaxy S4 comes as Samsung fnds itself at something of a crossroads in a market that was once dominated by Apple’s iPhone.
After years of following and refning the iPhone’s pioneering innovations, Samsung has dethroned its California-based rival to become the world’s top smartphone maker.
With that title has come increasing pressure for Samsung to shed its copycat label and come up with its own game-changing innovations.
“Samsung has entered territory that it hasn’t been in before, and sales of the S4 will show if it can sustain its newfound status in the market,” James Song, analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities, said.
Recent smartphone launches have lost something of the glamour and excitement that surrounded the early iPhone releases, in part because they are seen as offering incremental technology upgrades rather than breaking new ground.
The S4’s features include a high-defnition, fve-inch screen, enhanced picture-taking capabilities and the capacity to translate to and from nine languages.
Its release has been preceded by a massive promotional campaign - from the glitzy launch in New York to lighting up the sails of Sydney’s iconic opera house last Tuesday night with images shot by ordinary Australians.
Samsung - the world’s largest technology frm by value and also the top handset maker - has boasted stellar sales growth, setting new records for operating proft in every single quarter of last year.
First quarter results due Friday are expected to show a 53 per cent surge in operating proft from a year ago to 8.7 trillion won ($7.7 billion), largely fuelled by smartphone sales.
Samsung is estimated to have shipped 65 million smartphones globally in the frst three months of 2013, for a market share of around 30 per cent, according to Taiwanese analyst frm DRAMeXchange.
Apple by contrast, reported last week that its quarterly proft had dipped for the frst time in nearly a decade, with DRAMeXchange estimating its iPhone shipments at 37.5 million units for a 15.3 per cent market share.
But Apple’s iPhone commands a proft margin double that of Samsung’s smartphone stable which holds a much wider range of devices for both low and high-end buyers.
“Samsung still has a very long way to establish itself as a leader, not a chaser, considering it has never had a genius in innovation like Steve Jobs,” said Song. “But Jobs is no longer at Apple either and the company is struggling. That may help Samsung earn some time to come up with ways to become a market leader in every sense,” he added.
More than 41 million units of the Galaxy S3 have been sold globally since its release last May, while the frst and second editions racked up sales of 25 million and 40 million respectively.
Experts say the S4 has the potential to reach the 80 million sales mark by taking advantage of Apple’s recent problems with supply chain disruption.
Samsung Galaxy S4 (3G) will be available in all major retail outlets in Bahrain for BD265 and the LTE version will be announced later.
It is also available on Viva’s New Unlimited 20, 25 and 30 Smart Plans. All plans include unlimited Viva to Viva calls and data. Samsung’s latest innovation is available for free with the unlimited Smart 30 plan on a 12-month contract or with the unlimited Smart 20 plan on the 18-months contract.
For more information visit viva.com.bh
