Samsung is going all out once again to take another bite out of Apple with its new handset, but the competition is getting harder.
Samsung has chosen the United States for the official launch of the Galaxy S4, in its quest to secure its lead in the crucial American market. Apple outsold Samsung in the U.S. for the first time in the quarter ending in December, even after Samsung spent US$400 million on advertisements in the U.S. last year.
In the last two years, both Apple and Samsung have gone to head to head for dominance in the high-end smartphone market. During that same time, Samsung edged out Nokia with enough inexpensive low-end phones .
Samsung has sold 100 million Galaxy S phones worldwide since they first came out in 2010. While that is still well below and less than half of number Apple iPhones sold in the same period--268 million--Samsung's sales are also increasing.
The South Korean firm increases the screen size of each release in contrast to its predecessor, as every successive generation of the Galaxy line has larger than the one before. The Galaxy S3 has a 4.8 diagonal screen, substantially larger the Apple iPhone 5's 4-inch screen.
That being said, Galaxy S4 will still look very similar to its predecessor. It will have a 5-inch (1080p) display , weigh 130 grams, and be 7.9 mm thick.
The Galaxy S4 will have an updated camera, with 13 megapixel rear camera and 1.9 megapixel front camera, along with software for new custom editing photo features, such as Nokia's PureView and HTC’s UltraPixel technology.
In terms of processing, the Galaxy S4 will have either a 1.9GHz, quad-core Snapdragon Fusion Pro; or proprietary 1.6GHz octa-core Exynos 5 Octa chipset, along with 2 GB of of SD RAM. The OS will be Google Android 4.2 and will feature the TouchWiz user interface, in addition to the Eye Scrolling feature, making it easier to read on the phone's display and finally, the S Pen stylus functionality.
Last year, Samsung surpassed Apple as the world's largest maker of smartphones, controlling 30 percent of the market versus Apple's 19 percent. But Apple's iPhone is still the best-selling smartphone globally, as sales of Samsung's Galaxy S and Note are much lower.
Furthermore, as overall market growth slows, it is also becoming more competitive. Mobile manufacturers such as Huawei, HTC , and LG Electronics have announced products with features and hardware comparable to those the upcoming Galaxy will reportedly have.