NO CURVE BALL
Applause for Samsung as it rolls out its new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge
SOUTH Korea’s Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest Galaxy S smartphones, featuring a slim body made from aircraft-grade metal, in a bid to reclaim the throne of undisputed global smartphone leader from Apple.
Designed from scratch in an operation dubbed “Project Zero”, the Galaxy S6 and its curved-edges variant are critical for Samsung’s plans to reverse plunging smartphone revenues that led to its first annual earnings fall in three years last year.
A warm initial reception sent Samsung shares yesterday to their highest in nearly nine months. Some technology publications described the phones as Samsung’s best-looking after its previous flagship device, the Galaxy S5, failed to impress.
The shares closed up 4.9 percent, outperforming a 0.6 percent rise for the broader market.
“We listen to our customers and we learn from our missteps,” JK Shin, its mobile chief, told a packed hall in Barcelona ahead of the annual Mobile World Congress trade show, where the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge were unveiled on Sunday.
By some estimates, arch-rival Apple surpassed Samsung as the world’s top smartphone maker in the fourth quarter, with record sales of the bigscreen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Samsung begins its fightback on April 10 when the revamped Galaxy phones go on sale in 20 countries in one of the most important product launches in the company’s history.
Stand-out features include a casing made from lightweight metal used in aircraft, a step up from the plastic that disappointed many critics of the S5, and Corning’s Gorilla Glass on both front and back.
In addition to camera and screen upgrades, Samsung stripped out many of its unpopular in-house apps that infuriated users by gobbling up memory. The new phones will be powered by Samsung’s own 64-bit, 14-nanometer Exynos processors, a departure from its previous reliance on Qualcomm’s chips.
In another departure, batteries in the new phones cannot be replaced. To compensate, the devices are the first from Samsung to support wireless charging without a dedicated accessory and can also get four hours of power with a 10minute charge by cord.
Samsung is also touting the Galaxy S6’s compatibility with a new mobile payments system it is preparing to launch in the US and South Korea in the second half of this year.
The system, in partnership with major US banks and credit card companies including Visa and MasterCard, will allow users to make mobile payments through magnetic strip-card readers without an external accessory needed for other models.
The rival Apple Pay system, launched in the US in September last year and rapidly winning retailer support, requires merchants to install near-field card readers, limiting its reach as contactless credit cards have been slow to take off there. – Reuters