The Galaxy
S4 will be unveiled in New York this week as the battle with Apple hots up
again
As a venue
for America's Grammy music awards, the Radio City music hall in New York has
showcased stars from Michael Jackson to Lady Gaga, but on Thursday the headline
act will be the world's next blockbuster smartphone.
At a
ceremony to be broadcast live in Times Square, South Korean electronics giant
Samsung will unwrap the Galaxy S4, its answer to Apple's latest iPhone and the
latest salvo in the battle for supremacy between Seoul and Silicon Valley.
Samsung already sells more smartphones than any manufacturer, but at the high
end of the market Apple has remained unchallenged – until now.
Forecasters
say Samsung's flagship Galaxy S franchise is catching up with the iPhone, and
could begin to take its number one spot this year. While Apple has been
weakened by rows with shareholders, trouble at its Foxconn factories and the
maps debacle, the Samsung brand is gaining ground, backed by a $5bn-a-year
electronics advertising budget that dwarfs those of all its rivals.
"Apple
is not the one leading the market," said Francisco Jeronimo from analysis
firm IDC. "I wouldn't be surprised if the new Samsung device sells more
than the new Apple device over the next two years." Samsung's lips are
sealed but it is ploughing every resource into packing the latest technology
into the fourth edition of its Galaxy S, which is predicted to allow the users to scroll the screen and pause video simply by moving their eyes.
A camera
tracks the gaze, which in existing Galaxy phones is already used to stop the
screen going dark while pages are being read, and to adjust the picture to the
viewer's line of sight. Trademarks called "eye scroll" and "eye
pause" were registered by Samsung in Europe in January, suggesting two new
functions.
The latest
model is understood to have a 5in display, 13 megapixel camera and even an
eight-core processor – today's most advanced phones have four cores in their
silicon chips. All of which means the S4 should have a bigger screen, take
crisper pictures and process web pages faster than the iPhone 5.
Samsung has
"enormous" plans for the handset, according to Peter Misek at
Jefferies bank, with orders for 100m in its first nine months. By comparison,
Apple's bestselling phone to date, the 4S, took 15 months to ship 110m units by
the end of December.
The scale
of Samsung's ambition could pose more than a marketing threat to Apple.
Competition for raw materials and components such as screens in the soaraway
smartphone industry is fierce, and demand from Samsung is leading some
suppliers to say they will reallocate resources away from Apple, Misek said.
In a move
that could take the wind from the sails of Samsung, Apple is thought to have
brought forward the launch of its latest phone. While the iPhone 5 went on sale
in September, word on the street is that a 5S will appear this summer. Before
that, the S4 is predicted to unseat the iPhone 5 as the world's bestselling
mobile this spring, according to Neil Mawston at Strategy Analytics, who
forecast supremacy would swing back and forth before a decisive blow is dealt.
"It's
a bit like the Wacky Races at the moment, one company pulls ahead for one
quarter and the other pulls ahead the next," he said.
Teaser
video advertisements for the forthcoming Samsung "unboxing" feature a
boy whose face is lit up by a golden glow as he becomes the first to lift the
lid on the S4. The ad grandly claims he is about to witness "one of the
most amazing products to hit the market since TVs went colour".
The
pressure is particularly intense for Apple, whose latest products have been
seen as lacking the wow factor that abounded when Steve Jobs was at the helm.
"There is a lot of negativity around their brand at the moment," said
Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. "The next iPhone is a crucial product
but I can't see them not stepping up to the plate."
She
predicts Apple will come back with a redesigned user interface, and extras such
as more free storage for films in the cloud, a beefed-up version of its Siri
voice-activated assistant and perhaps a price cut.
HOW THE NEW
MODELS COMPARE
THE GALAXY
S4
Cameras 13
megapixel rear facing plus a 2 megapixel front-facing camera
Screen 4.99
inches, measured on diagonal, with a resolution of 440 pixels per inch
Processor
Exynos 5 processor with 1.8GHz speed and eight cores
Body Shiny
plastic
Apps
Androids should be the first to reach one million apps based on recent growth
rates
THE IPHONE
5
Cameras 8
megapixel rear facing plus a 1.5 megapixel front-facing camera
Screen 4
inches with a resolution of 326 pixels per inch
Processor
A6 processor with 1.3GHz speed and two cores
Body Aluminium
Apps
775,000. Often developers save best apps for the more lucrative Apple market
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