By PETER SVENSSON
AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Samsung Electronics is ratcheting
up its rivalry with Apple with its new Galaxy S 4 smartphone, which has a
larger, sharper screen than its predecessor, the best-selling S III.
Samsung trumpeted the much-anticipated phone's
arrival Thursday at an event accompanied by a live orchestra while an
audience of thousands watched the theatrics unfold on a four-level stage
at Radio City Music Hall. Summoning up a touch of Broadway, Samsung
employed 17 actors to demonstrate the new phone's features in a series
of scripted vignettes.
The Galaxy S 4, which crams a 5-inch screen into
body slightly smaller than the S III's, will go sale in the U.S.
sometime between the end of April and the end of June.
In the U.S., it will be sold by all four national
carriers - Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA -
as well as by smaller ones US Cellular and Cricket. All told, Samsung
plans to offer the Galaxy 4 S through 327 carriers in 155 countries,
giving it a wider reach than Apple's iPhone 5.
Samsung didn't say what the phone will cost, but it
can be expected to start at $200 with a two-year contract in the U.S.
That's comparable to the iPhone 5.
JK Shin, the executive in charge of Samsung's
mobile communications division, promised the money would be well spent
for a "life companion" that will "improve the way most people live every
day."
That bold promise set the tone for the kind of
flashy presentation associated with the showmanship of Apple, the
company that Samsung has been trying to upstage. Apple contends Samsung
has been trying to do it by stealing its ideas - an allegation has
triggered bitter courtroom battles around the world.
In the last two years, Samsung has emerged as
Apple's main competitor in the high-end smartphone market. At the same
time, it has sold enough inexpensive low-end phones to edge out Nokia
Corp. as the world's largest maker of phones.
The Galaxy line has been Samsung's chief weapon in
the smartphone fight, and it has succeeded in making it a recognizable
brand while competitors like Taiwan's HTC Corp. and Korean rival LG have
stumbled. Samsung has sold 100 million Galaxy S phones since they first
came out in 2010. That's still well below the 268 million iPhones Apple
has sold in the same period, but Samsung's sales rate is catching up.
Research firm Strategy Analytics said the Galaxy S
III overtook Apple's iPhone 4S as the world's best-selling smartphone
for the first time in the third quarter of last year, as Apple fans were
holding off for the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 took back the crown in the
fourth quarter.
One way Samsung and other makers of Android phone
have been one-upping Apple is by increasing the screen size. Every
successive generation of the Galaxy line has been bigger than the one
before. The S III sported a screen that measures 4.8 inches on the
diagonal, already substantially larger than the iPhone 5's 4-inch
screen. The S 4's screen is 56 percent larger than the iPhone's.
In a Wednesday interview, Apple marketing chief
Phil Schiller declined to discuss whether Apple is considering enlarging
the screen on the next model of the iPhone, which is expected to be
released later this year. He said Apple remains confident that the
iPhone 5 is the most useful and elegant smartphone available, hailing it
as "the most beautiful consumer electronics device ever created."
Samsung believes the S 4 will set the new standard.
Apart from the larger screen and upgraded
processor, the S 4 has a battery that's 20 percent larger than that of
the S III. Samsung didn't say if that translates into a longer battery
life - the added capacity might be gobbled up by the bigger screen or
other internal changes.
The S 4 comes with a built-in infra-red diode, so
it can control an entertainment center as a universal remote. This is a
feature that has showed up in Android tablets before.
The S 4 comes with several new technologies
intended to help users interact with the phone. For instance, the screen
now senses fingers hovering just above the screen, and some
applications react. The Mail application shows the first few lines of an
email when a finger hovers above it in the list, and the Gallery
application shows an expanded thumbnail.
Users can control some other applications by making
gestures in the air above the phone. In the browser, you can command
the screen to scroll up by swiping from top to bottom a few inches from
the phone.
The Camera application can now use both the front
and rear cameras simultaneously, inserting a small picture of the user
even as he's capturing the scene in front of him.
When several S 4s are in close proximity, they can
link up to play the same music, simultaneously - perfect for headphone
dance parties.
The Galaxy 4 S also will include a tool that
enables users to create a dividing line so part of the phone is devoted
exclusively to work while the other part is filled with personal
information and photos. The feature is similar to a function on the
latest BlackBerry - an indication that Samsung is going after other
smartphone makers besides Apple with its latest model.
The new features illustrate Samsung's drive to make
its phones stand out from the crowd of Android smartphones. Jan Dawson,
an analyst with Ovum, said they could be seen as "gimmicks rather than
game changers."
"At this point, Samsung appears to be trying to
kill the competition with sheer volume of new features - there should be
something here for everyone, even if most of these new features won't
be used by most users," he said.
While the event in New York was going on, Samsung
Electronics Co. kicked off its annual meeting in Seoul. CEO, Kwon
Oh-Hyun, told the audience that he expects slow growth in the global
consumer electronics market, except in smartphones, where sales are
still zooming.
___
AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke contributed to
this report from San Francisco. AP Business Writer Youkyung Lee
contributed from Seoul.
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