In an effort to devote some much needed space between rival flagship smartphone launches, Samsung Mobile is set to shift its announcement date of its next-generation Galaxy Note smartphone to mid-August.
Traditionally, Samsung has used the MWC and IFA trade shows in February and September to showcase its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphones respectively. This strategy gives the company ample breathing space between the two devices’ laumches, and since the first Galaxy Note in 2011, heralded an era of dominance in the smartphone industry from the South Korean giants.
Since then, Samsung’s grip in market share has been gradually slipping, and with it its record breaking profits. The company posted a less-than-expected profit in its latest quarterly report, mainly because it misjudged the demand for the curved-screened Galaxy S6 edge, which consumers wanted a lot more than Samsung anticipated.
As for the Note series, Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 6 Plus last year saw that device become the biggest rival to Samsung’s Galaxy Note. While the Note 4 still proved a success, Samsung is making sure its next iteration, the Galaxy Note 5, will get a longer exposure ahead of the expected iPhone 6S announcement in mid-September; the company does not want a repeat of last year, when the new iPhones were launched just six days after the Note 5 announcement, taking away precious media exposure.
As such, Samsung is said to announce the Note 5 in mid-August, a few weeks earlier than it normally would, and the company is set to launch it in the US instead of Europe. This would allow Samsung to showcase the device in both its Unpacked event and, a few weeks later, at IFA in Berlin, Germany.
Not much is known yet about Samsung’s coming phablet, but the early indications are that Samsung will retain the 5.7-inch display with a 2K resolution – anything less would mean it won’t work well with the next Gear VR headset. It will again be using Samsung’s in-house Exynos chipset, this time an octa-core Exynos 7422, which is an improved version of the 7420 found on the Galaxy S6 that features a “true all-in-one” solution that combines the CPU, GPU, RAM, flash storage and LTE modem in one die.
The Galaxy S6 edge
Samsung may also surprise attendees at the launch with an announcement for the Galaxy S6 edge Plus, a largersion of the S6 edge. Sammobile reports that the only main differences between this and the S6 edge will be a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor and a larger 3,000mAh battery.
(Source: The Verge, WSJ, Sammobile)
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