Samsung with array of new gadgets

Samsung Electronics became the first handset maker to announce a smartphone using Microsoft’s latest mobile software, making its surprise, hurried announcement just days before the highly anticipated launch of Nokia’s version. The brief announcement Wednesday at a Berlin electronics show comes amid expectations that smartphone makers may turn increasingly to Windows devices after a U.S. jury decided many of Samsung’s Google Android-based phones infringed Apple Inc. patents. “It looks like a good phone, and seems like a pre-emptive announcement ahead of Nokia,” said Sid Parakh, an analyst at investment firm McAdams Wright Ragen, of the Samsung phone. “Microsoft or Windows never got their best teams, never got their best designs, just because Android was doing so well. With the change in the legal environment, there’s a case to be made that Samsung will likely shift some of those resources to broaden out or diversify their own exposure.” Nokia, the ailing Finnish mobile firm, once the world’s leading producer of phones but now struggling to reverse losses, is due to unveil its new Lumia line of smartphones using Windows Phone 8 in New York on Sept. 5. Samsung’s new phone called ATIV S – tacked on to the end of a long news conference in Berlin that focused on other products – may elevate expectations for the Lumia. Samsung’s ATIV S Windows phone sports a high-end 4.8-inch display, Corning “Gorilla” glass, and an 8-megapixel rear camera and 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, Microsoft posted on its official blog Wednesday. “Expectations for a 40-megapixel or possibly 20-megapixel camera model are running high. If Nokia does not unveil a monster camera handset next week, many will be disappointed,” said Tero Kuittinen, analyst at mobile analytics firm Alekstra. But “this leaves Nokia plenty of room to draw a clear contrast with its upcoming announcement.” Samsung’s Windows-based smartphone marks the first in a “big lineup of new hardware” from the South Korean company based on Microsoft’s software, Microsoft executive Ben Rudolph said in a blog posting. Analysts say the introduction of Samsung’s Windows phone may be designed to assuage concerns that Microsoft will favor Nokia, whose chief executive Stephen Elop – himself a former senior Microsoft executive – has staked its future on the Windows platform. “The fact Samsung was allowed to be the first to announce is Microsoft’s backhanded way of letting other vendors know that Nokia is not getting special treatment,” Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said. But Jack Gold, an independent mobile consultant who runs J. Gold Associates, argued Samsung had signaled its commitment to Windows for a while, but Nokia will remain the primary driver of the new breed of Microsoft-powered devices. “Samsung has crossed the start line first and set the bar for Nokia’s launch,” said Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight. Microsoft gave a preview of its Windows Phone 8 software in June, and promised the first phones would be on the market by the autumn. Windows Phone 8 looks similar to, and is built on the same core code as Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system, but is not the same product. Windows 8, which will run on tablets and PCs, is scheduled to launch on Oct. 26. Samsung said the ATIV phone would hit stores in the October-November period but did not give an exact start date. On Wednesday, the Korean corporation also showed off a slew of tablets using Windows 8 software and the second generation of its popular Google Android-based Galaxy Note phone-cum-tablet “phablet” in downtown Berlin. Samsung has sold some 10 million of its original Galaxy Note devices, creating a new product category which has smaller screen than tablets, but bigger than smartphones. “I am pretty confident it will even outsell its predecessor,” said JK Shin, Samsung’s chief of mobile business. Samsung hopes the new device will take the focus away from its loss of the court case. Apple is now seeking speedy bans on the sale of eight Samsung phones, moving swiftly to turn legal victory into tangible business gain. The new version of Samsung’s Note features a thinner and slightly bigger 5.5-inch screen, quad-core processor, the latest version of the Android operating system called Jellybean, and improved stylus function. The Note is designed to work well with a stylus for jotting notes and drawing on a screen, while styluses for other devices tend to be an afterthought. The Note’s large screen also makes the phone more like a tablet and more suitable for playing games and consuming content. Samsung started selling a tablet version of the Note this month. “There won’t be huge innovative changes in design, but the Note II will feature quite a few improvements and enable Samsung to carry on its strong sales momentum in the category,” said Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. “With the launch, Samsung will also be trying to turn around downbeat sentiment after the U.S. legal defeat.” While Apple has been releasing a new smartphone model each year, Samsung makes several to target different types of customers. That includes low-end phones for price-conscious customers. As a result, Samsung has been selling more smartphones than Apple this year. Apple did not include the Note and other newly unveiled Samsung products in its original lawsuit. But the company and its lawyers are expected by many legal experts to try and use last week’s legal victory to go after future gadgets, especially because the jury found infringing features in Samsung phones such as pinch-and-zoom and bounce-back – common in Android. During the tech show in Berlin, Samsung also unveiled a voice-controlled camera as part of its fall lineup of consumer gadgets aimed at setting itself apart from Apple. The South Korean electronics giant presented the 16-megapixel Galaxy Camera, which runs Google’s popular Android operating system, giving it features previously restricted to smartphones or tablet computers such as photo organizing, photo sharing and voice-control. The tech show opens Friday to the public, with more than 1,400 exhibitors unveiling the latest touch-screen tablets, 3-D televisions without special glasses and smaller, smarter and more interconnected devices to wow punters. Samsung’s main competitors, however, are to be absent from this year’s electronics show. Apple never exhibits at international fairs and neither Google, which has just launched its Nexus-7 mini-tablet, nor Microsoft, set to unveil its “Surface” tablet soon, is setting up shop at the tech show. From DailyStar