A mid-March release of the next generation Samsung flagship smartphone –Galaxy S4 – is no longer a rumor. The South Korean tech giant Monday confirmed that it would launch the new Galaxy S smartphone at a March 14th event in New York.
Although the March 14th release date of Samsung Galaxy S4 has been widely rumored of late, a recent report suggested, citing an analyst, that the launch of the highly anticipated device could “initially” be delayed due to issues with its own Exynos Octa processor.
However, now it seems that March 14 would indeed see the release of Galaxy S3’s successor, “taking its fight for market supremacy to Apple Inc's doorstep,” Reuters has reported.
"We introduced the Galaxy S III in London last year, and this time we changed the venue (to New York)… as we were bombarded with requests from U.S. mobile carriers to unveil the Galaxy S IV in the country," Reuters quoted Samsung Electronics' mobile division chief JK Shin as saying on the Edaily news website.
The Galaxy S4 release will be the first U.S. launch of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy smartphone in three years, the report has added.
Samsung released the first Galaxy S smartphone during the CTIA mobile trade show in the U.S. in 2010. The subsequent version of the device, Galaxy S2, was launched at the MWC in Spain in 2011 while the existing Galaxy S3 was unveiled in London in May last year.
The March 14th release date has also been confirmed by technology news website All Things D, citing an unidentified “Samsung representative,” who revealed the date and location for the launch event.
Samsung Sends Out Invitations
CNET reported Monday that Samsung had already started sending out invitations to a “Samsung Unpacked” event, which is scheduled to take place March 14th in New York. While the invitation doesn’t include any more details, the report “has confirmed with a high-level executive that the Galaxy S4 will make its debut there.”
The invite, labeled as “Samsung Unpacked 2013 Episode 1,” doesn’t mention the name “Galaxy S4.” However, it does have a strong hint.
The tagline in the invite reads “Ready 4 the show,” and the use of the number “4” apparently carries the big indication that the star of the show during the March 14 event in the New York City will indeed be the new Galaxy S4.
Although it was expected that Samsung would allow some leaks related to Galaxy S4 at the Mobile World Congress that is being held in Barcelona, the company eventually decided to go for its own announcement at a later date.
Samsung Galaxy S4 is expected to heat up the rivalry with Apple’s iPhone in the U.S. mobile phone market, where the Cupertino tech giant has outdone Samsung to become the leading handset seller in Q4 2012.
However, as Reuters noted, Samsung may have been dragged down by Apple to the second spot in the U.S. handset market, “but globally the $210 billion South Korean giant is expected to widen its smartphone advantage over” Apple this year with help of an extensive product line-up.
“Apple investors have grown anxious about the company's prospects amid intense competition from Samsung's cheaper, Android-powered phones, and signs the premium smartphone market may be close to saturation in developed markets,” Reuters has reported.
Kukil Bora is a technology reporter for the International Business Times, where this report first appeared.
