London - South Korea's Samsung Electronics on Thursday unveiled its latest flagship smartphone at a London launch as it seeks to cement its position as the world's best-selling mobile phone maker.
The Galaxy S3 boasts a 4.8-inch screen (12.2cm), 22 percent larger than the Galaxy S2, the hugely popular predecessor that helped the company overhaul Nokia as the world leader.
Despite the larger screen, Samsung says the phone is not much larger than its predecessor due to its smaller frame.
Other new developments include “intelligent camera features” which use face recognition technology and improved voice-activated controls.
The new model also uses the Android operating system, and its performance in the marketplace is perceived to be crucial to the success of the Linux-based system.
“The importance of the Galaxy S3 to Samsung cannot be underestimated,” Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum, told the BBC.
“The company has built its reputation on producing the 'must-have' Android smartphone and in the process has become the poster child for the Android platform.”
The handset goes on sale in Europe in May to be followed by launches in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The new SIII will have a 4.8 inch touch screen, 8 megapixel camera and will use the latest version of Google's Android software.
Won-Pyo Hong, head of product strategy at Samsung's mobile business, said it expected sales of the SIII to outstrip predecessor SII's more than 20 million units.
“Definitely, we expect so. The level of interest from our partners has been bigger,” Hong told Reuters in an interview. He said the marketing budget would also increase, even if brand awareness was already quite high.
“We need to spend more on marketing to address consumer interest and to meet requirements of our partners,” he said.
Analysts said the new device represented a formidable challenge to rivals, given a combination of the Galaxy brand, sales support from operators and heavy marketing.
“Samsung must make the most of a 4-5 month window of opportunity with the Galaxy SIII before Apple changes the game once more with its next generation iPhone,” said Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight.
“Supported by an eye-watering marketing spend aligned to Samsung's Olympics sponsorship, this is going to be the biggest non-Apple smartphone launch ever seen.”
The new Galaxy will be powered by Samsung's quad-core microprocessor, which the company hopes will also be used in handsets made by Nokia, HTC and Motorola, as well as Apple, its biggest customer for components.
The Exynos 4 Quad, based on British chip designer ARM Holdings Cortex A9 technology, enables more tasks in a shorter period of time - for example streaming video can run on one core while the other cores update applications, connect to the web and scan virus-check, simultaneously.
Samsung shares hit a lifetime high after its first-quarter results, pushing its market value to $190 billion, 11 times that of Japanese rival Sony, though still only a third of Apple's, the world's most valuable company.
Apple and Samsung's near duopoly in high-end smartphones was not expected to come under threat this year or next. - AFP-Reuters