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THE LATEST PHONE in Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy line, which has emerged as the biggest competitor to Apple’s iPhone, will go on sale in Europe on May 29 and in the US this summer, the company said Thursday.
The Korean company showed off the phone at an event in London. It has a high-definition touch screen that’s nearly twice the size of the iPhone’s, but it’s thinner and lighter than Apple Inc.’s phone.
Samsung said the phone will go on sale in 145 countries with 296 phone companies, making it the company’s biggest launch so far.
In the US, Japan and Korea, the phone will use fourth-generation, or 4G, networks for faster data downloads. Samsung didn’t say which carriers would sell it, but the previous Galaxy model was sold by all four national US wireless carriers: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.
Like previous Galaxy phones, the new S III will run Google Inc.’s Android software. The processor, or “brains” of the device, will be upgraded to include four computing cores. The iPhone and most other high-end phones are “dual-core,” but there are some quad-core devices on sale already.
The added computing power will be put to use in the S III’s expanded voice-command features. When the phone screen is off, owners will be able to “wake” it up by saying “Hi, Galaxy.” They can then give further spoken commands. When Apple launched the iPhone 4S last year, it also made advances in voice recognition a central selling point.
Samsung doesn’t release phone shipment figures, but most analysts believe its smartphones outsold Apple and its 35.1 million iPhones in the January-to-March period. Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley believes Apple and Samsung together accounted for virtually all the profits in the phone industry in the first quarter, with three-quarters going to Apple by virtue of its singular focus on the high-priced iPhone.
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Drooling. iPhone go bye bye.
I’m a big galaxy fan have both and cannot wait to get my hands of the s3…. it’s on preorder with vodafone…. long live android
Doesn’t sound cheap ! But it does sound amazing !
Twice the size of the iPhone, how in the jaysus will I fit that in the pocket of me chinos?
All that lovely technology and the apps are STILL pants :D
But mostly free.
Sorry, FREE pants
What apps in particular? Why not give the developers some feedback, they’d probably appreciate it. That’s how you innovate in the tech world. You release an app, get feedback and tailor it to the needs of the users as they request. You should have seen the first versions of facebook, google, youtube etc. not great design but very useful.
No point spending loads of time and money making apps that look sexy but functionally useless. Give the customers what they want as they want it. The great thing about android is that you can make a change to an app and have it up in the store immediately. Agile development is the lifeblood of the modern web and google allows for this. There are plenty of crap apps on iTunes but Apple themselves are a massive block in the development cycle.
haha, compared to the iPhone? the is OS is far superior and the apps are very quickly catching up. The galaxy outsells the iPhone for a reason, bud.
B7584 Do you have an Android? Or are you just another Apple fanboi commenting on how you wish things were. I had an iphone 3GS, was ok but hated Apple choosing which apps were available. They were also expensive. I switched to HTC Desire as i wanted to mess around with different ROMs. I currently have an S2 and it blows my sister’s iphone 4 out of the water. There’s very little difference between apps we both have and i can find high quality apps for almost anything i can think of on play. The spec for the S3 is stunning, Apple will need to do a lot of catching up just to match it nevermind beat it and with Steve Jobs no longer leading it that looks a longshot.
That reason being that it’s 30% cheaper…
@terence Samsung outsells apple, the galaxy doesn’t outsell the iPhone by a long shot. Remember Samsung make lots of different phones
Samsung does indeed make a lot of different phones, including, but not limited to:
Galaxy
Galaxy S
Galaxy Europa
Galaxy Nexus
Galaxy S II
Galaxy S III
I’d say the Samsung Galaxy Range makes up a large amount of their sales
Sh1t my SII is only six months old….
can’t wait for it looks amazing
Poor Steve will turn in his grave….
Pre-ordered from Meteor. Have the S II and totally love it. Knocks socks off the iPhone. Roll on the 29th! :-D
How did you pre-order? I rang them and they said they didn’t have a pre-order offer in place.
want. Want it now please.
How exciting! A new rip off product!!
I gave you a red from my s2
I’ve got a galaxy ace and thought it was pretty good value.
A rip off of what exactly ?
buying the galaxy s2 over an iphone was the best decision i ever made, will be v interested to see what s3 is like
It’s like holding a net book screen to your ear. Far too big. Think they’re missing the point. Being pitched as a phone that’s also a tablet. Like saying here’s a pot that’s also a cup.
When people are honest, the screens on the SG’s just get in the way.
Get the whole apple over control thing. It annoys me as well. But they just work whereas the other free stuff is just buggy. Initially you download a load of apps but end up deleting most if them off anyway.
The screens on the S3 or on all of them? because i love the screen on the S2. Perfect size. S3 may be a little on the big side but I’m sure i’ll get used to it.
A pot that’s also a cup? JUST TAKE MY MONEY!!!!
apple is the new Microsoft. Google leading the way
You do realise the SGS3 is manufactured by Samsung and not Google, yeah?
The clue is in the name – Samsung Galaxy III.
yep I know it not manufactured by Google. referring to amdroid
And you know android is an operating system and not a brand of phone?
your a genius for stating the fecking obvious. clever lad you are. I code in both ios and Droid. so stop trying to school me smart arse
The only thing worse than reading that article was making the mistake of reading the ‘I’ve the best phone ‘cos…’ comments following it.
No mention of whether or not it has Snake…
Screen is too big for me. I was also looking at the the HTC One X, roughly same size screen. Settled for the Sony Xperia S in the end. Very pleased with it although I know it’s nowhere near as trendy as an Apple or Samsung.
Sure of it does what you want it to do wheres the need for trendy?
I just think its gas people drooling over a quad core phone when the majority will use it for web browsing and angry birds.
@B7584: You know they make phone calls too yeah? #Drooling
@anthony u need to move into 21st century s.experia….???
Enligthen me Richard
I hope the Galaxy range continue to outsell iPhones, at least that way I know my handset is not the prime target for cyber criminals
I dont think anyone is trying to say that apple phones are better than samsung phones because well theyre not.
The specs on the S2 are great and the have upped the game once more for the S3. Theres never going to be a winner as such because Apple release a phone > Samsung trump it followed by Apple trumping it and so on so forth. Apple will have their work cut out trying to out do the S3. Its how big rival companies in all areas of manufacturing operate.
I dont own an android phone but if i did it would be Samsung. I have a good few friends who own androids and while they like them & i like them too, all their complaints are about the lack of good useable apps.
Nobody in their right mind will deny that a samsung 2 or 3 is capable of a hell of a lot but to joe consumer, if the apps arent up to scratch, what good are they?
Ive had this discussion before about ROMs etc on androids, fine its open source but would 10% of users even know what a ROM is or what their android OS is actually capable of doing?
Joe Consumer wants useable apps & plenty of them.
Is the screen on S3 not going to push it out of the VS iphone bracket though? Is it a tablet? Is it a phone? Isnt there a 7″ samsung tablet already?
What was the point of the galaxy note?
what is point of galaxy note? there is no tablet on the market than can do calls and still fit in your jeans pocket. id rather still call galaxy note a phone not a tablet, definitely, but either way this is best combination of both that ever hit the market
I for one love Samsung… I have a galaxy s an s2 and the 10 in tab….and I have no problem finding usable apps… I also write code for android it’s far superior than IOS… I agree that majority of people don’t use the s2 properly but it’s some phone and I can’t wait for post man to bring my s3 at end of may….android and Samsung all the way oh 30 million s2 sold so far… not bad eh
I had intended on buying an apple for business purposes & spoke to friends that had them & all of them had only good things to say. I went to my phone shop spoke to this guy that knew a lot about phones & he said the apple very good product well marketed but for business S2 is light years ahead so reluctantly I got the S2. 9 months later I am addicted to this thing. I am not a tech head but this thing does everthing not just angry birds. My favourite app is soundcloud.
Could you be a bit more vague with the specs? Engadget it is.
“Apple” is mentioned 6 times in the article. That’s some serious keyword stuffing going on there. Here are the phone details:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-4238.php
Thanks for the link to the specs Stephen. The magic phrase of ‘up to 64GB is there, so I’m probably sold on it. The idea of not having to use iTunes to load an extensive music collection is very appealing. And among other specs, I’m also rather sold on the phrase ‘gorilla glass’. Sounds very cool indeed…
Yeah it looks like a pretty decent phone. That site is actually very useful if you want to compare 2 phone specs side by side like so:
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=4238&idPhone2=4212
galaxy note is best by mile… never ever would go for smaller screen in mobile phone this is totally new experience and possibilities. any phone id consider next is galaxy note 2, sorry but no interest in s3 at all…even though that will be surly great phone.
The best phone I ever had was a Sony Ericsson k550i, I loved that little phone had it about 4 years. I hate my iPhone it’s never out of my hands, I’m always checking something or other on it, I’m even doing it now! That’s it I’m setting up a Betty ford type clinic for people who just can’t put there smart phones down for 5 mins
I have the Galaxy S2. It’s a smashing phone for my needs, which is mainly browsing. The screen is plenty big. Anything bigger and it just wouldn’t fit in a jeans pocket especially if you have a protective cover on it. I don’t see the attraction of these new bigger higher performance phones. Most people I’d imagine use their phone for browsing, texting, calls and perhaps listen to radio/music. S2 performs all them v well. As for apps I find most of the android apps excellent. Most apps are now made available in I-store and Android market.
One thing the S2 is bound to now come down in price. For anyone yet to get a smartphone you will get a real bargain.
I saw an article recently commenting on the Oric 16k….those were the days!
I still have my oric 48k. Wasn’t it tragic when they brought out the Atmos? I was broken hearted. History just repeats itself!
I-phone or Galaxy doesn’t make much difference to me but the only problem i would have with the new Galaxy is, i’ll have to get my pockets extended to fit the bloody thing in there. The 90′s and early 00′s we needed magnifying glasses to see the phones because they got so small, now we need to stand back from them or hang them on the wall to see the full screen.
I’m sold! Only 25 more sleeps before I can upgrade to one.
Anybody know how long the battery lasts?
Not long enough in any smart phone.
Apple rumoured to be working on hydrogen based batteries that will last weeks. The first manufacturer to nail the battery issues will do very well. Quad core super dooper retina 680,000 x 11million pixel screens arent worth a shite if you need to have them plugged in more often than not.
The new design is awful compared to the S2. Dual core is enough processor power for smartphones .
“but then there’s HTC phones, but no one wants them, cos they’re shite” #fatherted
Em, guys they’re phones ok! They’re not going to bring world peace, eliminate famine or cure cancer. Why is it that a lot of these smart phones have dumb owners? Guess it must be the radiation,…
says the old fart with the Nokia brick;) just kidding
I bought an iPhone last January after having been an SG2 user for about a year. I switched for two reasons, the first being the much higher quality and innovation seen on iPhone apps. I owned a 4G iPod touch while I was using Android and I found myself constantly leaning towards the iPod version of apps because of the variety, quality and stability of available apps. App developers who deploy on both platforms will typically prioritise iPhone as well, due to the better monetisation potential and ease of development compared to the fragmented multi-device, multi-screen size, multi-version nightmare that is Android software development, but that’s a different issue.
I intially chose Android over iOS because Android blogs I read at the time argued that the beefier specs of Android phones equated to a better user experience. That argument I now realise is both incorrect and completely misses the point. In the mobile ecosystem, apps are king. It doesn’t matter if your phone has a better camera or faster processor or more memory – if my phone software has a larger cohort of talented developers writing more innovative and better quality apps for it, my phone wins. The modern smartphone has the potential to replace or drastically erode the market for certain types of physical device with app based equivalents. This has already happened to photography, music, games consoles, satellite navigation and health and fitness devices. This potential has been better realised on the iPhone, which explains why iPhone users are happier with their phones than Android users.
The second reason I switched was due to various software problems i experienced on the SG2 such as the screen brightness randomly dimming and needing a phone restart to fix, and the fact that Android is installed on seriously underpowered phones that take ages to do anything. The dimming issue was fixed in a software update apparently, but I was told that the update was not likely to become available because my carrier had to approve the update for use on their network, and because they felt providing updates would reduce any incentive to upgrade to a new phone down the road, it was unlikely I’d ever get it.
Unfortunately, this is a widespread problem for Android users, as the update process is horribly fragmented and ill-defined. Low end Android handsets are often deliberately stamped so that they never receive an update. If you buy the phone on an 18 or 24 month contract , that’s a pretty shitty deal, which forces users into the horrible quagmire of tolerating annoying issues, buying another phone or going down the route of custom ROMs which have no assurance of performance, stability or security. For those handset owners lucky enough to receive an update, which version you get and when is a function of who your handset manufacturer is. This has been well documented elsewhere.
Another issue with Android updates, and the operating system in general is that due to the availability of Android’s source code, phone manufacturers and carriers alike often like to tinker with stock Android releases to “add-value” and pump them full of useless widgets and bloatware which look pretty but do almost nothing useful. Unfortunately, such modifications often introduce bugs into the device which would otherwise not have been there. Even if you do get reasonably stable performance from an OEM installation of Android, you may be one dodgy update away from battery issues and random shutdowns as documented here
Contrast this against the iPhone. All updates come directly from Apple, unmodified, and the company’s policy of supporting the last three generations of iPhone mean that you’ll likely benefit from regular OS updates for 3 years. Now that I have an iPhone, I can use great apps like Animoog, Djay, Inspire Pro, Figure, Numbers and Pages, all apps that will probably never deploy on Android , and if they do, will remain two years behind in terms of functionality as is the case with the new Instagram Android app. It seems to me that Apple keep you buying the next iPhone by making you really happy with your current one, whereas Android manufacturers seem intent on getting you to upgrade phones by making you really unhappy with your existing one
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