Apple may have redefined handsets with its revolutionary iPhone, but Samsung appears poised to take smartphones to the next level with its long-awaited Galaxy S4 (IV).
The highly-anticipated smartphone is scheduled to be unveiled tomorrow at an mega-event in NYC which will see up to 5,000 people queue for a chance to catch a glimpse of the S4.
An understandably nervous Apple has gone on the offensive, with Apple exec Phillip Schiller telling the Wall Street Journal why devices running Google’s mobile Android operating system are suppsoedly inferior to the iOS-powered iPhone.
According to Schiller, four times as many iPhone users switched away from Android than to a handset running Google’s mobile OS. In addition, said Schiller, fragmentation is a major issue for the OS, with many Android users running older versions of the operating system. In contrast, Apple’s implementation of iOS is more regimented.
“Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn’t as good as an iPhone,” Schiller claimed.
“When you take an Android device out of the box, you have to sign up to nine accounts with different vendors to get the experience iOS comes with. They don’t work seamlessly together.”
As TG Daily previously reported, the Jelly Bean-powered (4.2) Galaxy S4 is widely believed to boast a 5.5-inch 1080p display, along with a quad-core Qualcomm processor in the US, a 13-megapixel rear camera, 2GB of RAM and either 16 or 32GB of storage, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
Earlier reports indicate that the S4 would offer automatic scrolling based on the user’s eye movement, although Bloomberg now disputes that claim.
“Eye scrolling won’t be in the Galaxy S4, though it may appear in future versions of the phone,” wrote Bloomberg’s Scott Moritz & Robert Fenner.
“There will be more simplified uses of eye-tracking technology, such as the ability to pause videos when the user’s eyes move away from the screen.”
With or without automatic scrolling, JJ Park, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., predicts the S4 is likely to ship 70 million to 80 million units by the end of 2013, while Warren Lau, an analyst at Kim Eng Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong said this week’s event will likely offer the industry a sense of how many of those sales will originate from the US, where a significant number of consumers remain loyal to Apple’s wildly popular iPhone.
“Consumers in North America are still very much drawn to iPhones,” he said. “Samsung has chosen Radio City Hall in New York City – a premier location in Manhattan which can house 5,000 people. This is a pretty big deal.”
