Samsung Smarphone Software Improvements in Galaxy S4 ...
>> Software changes show Samsung growing into its leadership role
Galaxy S4 makes its debut with an array of new features and a real shot at seizing the long term lead from Apple
Caroline Gabriel
Rethink Wireless
15 March, 2013
rethink-wireless.com
Samsung is in the place Apple enjoyed a couple of years ago, where it could launch a yogurt carton on a piece of string, call it Galaxy and have a hit on its hands. But as Apple also knows, for once on the back foot as its arch-rival stole its media thunder and even its launch venue, that this is the most dangerous moment. Unquestioning love quickly turns to disappointment. So is the new Galaxy S4 enough to fend that off?
On the hardware front, consistently the area where Samsung's vast resources genuinely outdo Apple, most of the changes had been well leaked. The eight-core processor, the super-high resolution screen, the 13-megapixel camera with associated imaging gimmickry - all these were present and correct, and playing to Samsung's strengths. Perhaps not quite the "quantum leap" which the head of Samsung's mobile business, JK Shin, proclaimed at the event at New York's Radio City Music Hall (previously an Apple venue), but certainly impressive enough not to dash any but the wildest hopes.
But where the Korean firm needs to make significant advances, if it is to retain its number one position and rely on something deeper than slick marketing to attract users, is in software. Here Apple has far more natural capability than its enemy, but Samsung has been investing heavily in improving its once-clunky TouchWiz user interface - an overlay which serves the supplementary purpose of asserting its independence from Google in Android. That in itself has created the background drama to the S4 launch - reports of rifts between the search giant and the OEM which accounts for almost half of Android device sales, as each tries to stamp its leadership on the platform.
The S4 does show a Samsung which is capable, for the first time, of giving Google - and in time, even Apple - a run for its money in terms of all-round user experience. The device maker has changed from a firm making cosmetic changes but basically being a hardware innovator, to pushing the Android platform forward (and marketing its changes, some of which have been prefigured by LG and others, far more effectively than its rivals).
Some of the advances come from the fact the S4 is launched with Android 4.2.2, catching up with Google Nexus, but there are many Samsung specific enhancements too, with more and more features being baked into TouchWiz. Some important ones include AirView, which enables a user to interact with the phone by just hovering a finger over the display, and AirBrowse, another gesture function which enables calls to be answered and photos browsed using a wave of the hand.
The most hyped software addition has been Smart Pause, which uses facial recognition (though falls just short of eye tracking) to detect when a user is looking at the screen and pause content if they look away.
The dual-camera function uses both camera sensors at the same time and provides eight ways to combine the images - for instance, filming an event and inserting the user's reaction into the images.
Samsung is also highlighting the fashionable area of smartphone as health monitor, including a range of custom applications under the S-Health label, imcluding integrated pedometer, and optional heart rate monitor or pedometer band. Other software includes text reading, via optical character recognition, and language translation.
On the more predictable hardware side, the new phone is slimmer (7.9 millimeters) and slightly lighter (130 grams) than its predecessor and has a slicker look. While some models will have the eight-core Exynos processor, US versions will sport only a quad-core CPU, but that comes with an integrated LTE modem. The 5-inch screen sports Full HD Super AMOLED technology with higher resolution than the iPhone 5's, at 441ppi. There are 2Gbytes of memory; cameras at 13mp and 2mp; all flavors of Wi-Fi up to the new 802.11ac plus 42Mbps HSPA+ and Bluetooth 4.0; Category 3 LTE in FDD and TDD variants; with NFC and GPS. There is also an infrared blaster for controlling TV sets.
Unlike Apple, Samsung has other shots at impressing its public this year. There will be new Galaxy Notes and other high end handsets, but the S4 is the flagship and has a heavy burden to bear - to establish Samsung as an unassailed leader in the view of the markets and the carrier community, not just of eager bloggers and consumers. And behind the glitz, it is continually improving the elements which have to be in place to turn the marketing storm into consistent sales - the efficient supply chain and the broad distribution channels. "We expect Samsung to expand its lead over Apple this year," Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, told Bloomberg, echoing some important themes in Samsung's leadership. "Samsung has a bigger smartphone portfolio and deeper distribution than Apple at the moment." ###
- Eric - |
