Samsung hopes new phone-cum-tablet will lift legal gloom

Miyoung Kim Seoul

Samsung Electronics unveiled the second generation of its popular Galaxy Note phone-cum-tablet at Europe’s biggest electronics show in Berlin yesterday, as the South Korean firm came under pressure to innovate after losing a US patent battle with Apple.

A US federal jury found last week that Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and awarded Apple $1.05 billion (R8.4bn) in damages. Apple is now seeking speedy bans on the sale of eight Samsung cellphones, moving swiftly to turn legal victory into tangible business gain.

The Galaxy Note phablet, Samsung’s second most popular smartphone after its flagship Galaxy S, is not included in the list of the potential US sales ban, and Samsung hopes the phablet upgrade will lift any post-Apple gloom at the South Korean group.

“There won’t be huge innovative changes in design, but the Note 2 will feature quite a few improvements and enable Samsung to carry on its strong sales momentum in the category,” Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, said yesterday before the unveiling. “With the launch, Samsung will also be trying to turn around downbeat sentiment after the US legal defeat.”

The new version of the Note features a thinner and slightly bigger 5.5-inch screen, a more powerful quad-core processor, the latest version of Google’s Android operating system called Jellybean, and improved stylus function.

It is the latest product to illustrate Samsung’s attempts to make bold design changes as it comes increasingly under pressure to differentiate its line-up from the iPhone, whose simple and large touchscreen-based design revolutionised the mobile device industry and is still considered the gold standard of smartphone design.

Samsung is also working to introduce smartphones with bendable screens later this year as it seeks to cement its lead in the $200bn-plus global smartphone market and challenge Apple, which is expected to launch its new iPhone early next month.

The Note 2 comes just three months after Samsung released the third generation of its Galaxy S smartphone, which has already sold more than 10 million units, and succeeds the 5.3-inch Note, which has been a surprise hit since it was introduced in October last year.

Other companies that offer so-called phablets include LG Electronics and HTC. ABI Research has predicted annual phablet shipments could reach 208 million by 2015.

Unlike Apple, Samsung depends on various line-ups, offering a range of models in different sizes and with different software, and keeps its product cycle shorter. Later this year, it is expected to launch a new model running Microsoft’s upgraded Windows operating system.

Samsung shares rose 2.9 percent to 1.23 million won (R9 101) in Seoul yesterday – in a broader South Korean market that closed up 0.6 percent – and are now down just 3.5 percent from their levels before Friday’s US ruling. The shares slid 7.5 percent on Monday, wiping $12 billion off the company’s market value. – Reuters