Last week, we learnt that the eagerly awaited Galaxy S3 won’t be making an appearance at the Mobile World Congress, which will be held in Barcelona towards the end of this month. However, we were hopeful that the latest and greatest Galaxy device will hit the shelves before the end of first half of 2012. Now, South Korea’s Electronic Times News has published a new report that backs this up.

ET News believes that the first quad-core powered behemoth from Samsung will be released in May. As you might expect from Samsung, there are multiple variations of the Galaxy device in the pipeline, including a 3D version and one with a touch pen. ET also divulged some of the other specifications of the Galaxy S3. The S3 will feature an 8 megapixel rear and a 2 megapixel front camera, SAMOLED Plus display, 2GB RAM, and Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). However, the S3 isn’t simply about mighty specs. Measuring in at 7mm, the next-gen flagship from Samsung is also rumored to have killer looks.

Samsung has witnessed spectacular success in the smartphone segment with the Galaxy S and S2. However, it will face stiffer challenge this year. The iPhone 5 is expected to be a significant overhaul that should hit the market around about the same time as the S3. 2012 should be an extremely interesting year for smartphone enthusiasts.

Samsung recently launched the dual-SIM Samsung Champ Deluxe Duos in India. This handset comes with a 2.8 inch touchscreen display, 1.3 megapixel rear camera, 16 GB expandable memory and much more. The entry-level Champ Deluxe Duos is specially targeted at the youth in India. It comes with the Samsung ChatON messaging service, which allows you to communicate instantly with any mobile phone and share text, pictures, calendar, contacts, emotions, hand-written notes and videos instantly with your friends.

Samsung Champ Deluxe Duos features a 2.8 inch QVGA touchscreen display, sporting a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, TouchWiz UI, dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) capabilities, 1.3 megapixel rear camera, GPRS/EDGE, 3.5 mm headset jack, FM radio, Audio and Video player, microSD card slot, 16 GB expandable memory, micro USB, make fake calls feature, Bluetooth, Samsung ChatON and a 1000 mAh battery.

Samsung Champ Deluxe Duos is available in 2 colors – White and Black. This handset comes with a price tag of Rs.4790. However, you can easily buy this handset at Flipkart for just Rs.3925. To get this handset from Flipkart, head over to this page.

Earlier this week, Samsung announced the fourth variant of the highly popular Galaxy S smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S Advance comes with a 4 inch Super AMOLED display and a powerful 1 GHz dual-core processor. This handset will ship with the old Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System.

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance comes with the curved glass design, which was previously seen in the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus smartphones. The curved glass design enhances the handling of the device and fits the user’s facial form easily. Three UK already announced that the Galaxy S Advance will be soon available for its customers. However, the company failed to announce the exact price and release date. On the other hand, Clove, a popular online retailer in the UK have already started taking pre-orders of this smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy S Advance features a 4 inch Super AMOLED display, sporting a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, 1 GHz dual-core processor, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS, TouchWiz user interface, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, 8 GB internal memory, 768 MB RAM, microSD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory and more.

It also comes with a 3.5 mm headset jack, music player with SoundAlive, ChatON, Readers Hub, Music Hub, Social Hub, Polaris Office, stereo FM Radio with RDS, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 14.4 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, Samsung Kies 2.0, A-GPS, Samsung Apps, Android Market and a 1500 mAh Li-ion battery.

You can pre-order the SIM-free Samsung Galaxy S Advance for £295 (approx $470). This handset will be launched during the last week of February. You can expect the availability of this handset around the time of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012. To pre-order this handset, head over to this page at Clove.

Today, Samsung reported that it has managed to sell more than 700,000 units of the Galaxy Note in Korea. Considering Samsung has ‘sold’ these units to distributors, the actual sales figure might be a bit lower. Since Korea is Samsung’s home market, it should not come as a surprise that the company totally dominates the market.

The Samsung Galaxy S II was without any doubt, the most popular Android handset of 2011. The phone has managed to break all the previous sales record of Samsung, and is still selling like hot cakes.

When Samsung had announced the Galaxy Note last year, with a mammoth 5.3-inch screen and a S-Pen (Stylus) feature, many people argued that this tablet cum smartphone would meet the same fate as the Dell Streak 5.

However, the Galaxy Note managed to prove the critics wrong, and has been selling well right from day one. The handset managed to cross the 1 million mark in December, last year. The Galaxy Note is yet to be released in the United States, which will further boost its sale.

(Source)

Samsung and AT&T have started rolling out the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update for the Infuse 4G. The Infuse 4G was among the first phone’s on AT&T network to support its 21MBps HSPA+ network, and to use a mammoth 4.5-inch Super-AMOLED Plus screen.

Along with the bump in the Android version, there are quite a few other goodies as well included in the update. Below is the full change-log of the update -:

Improved Copy and Paste functionality

•             Redesigned Multi Touch Software Keyboard

•             Download manager for long running HTTP downloads

•             Improved power management and application control

•             Notification Shade: “Flight Mode” added (“Silent” removed)

•             New Fonts options added include Choco Cooky, Cool Jazz, Rosemary

•             Keyboard Changes: Android Keyboard with Wider Spaced keys and Quick Keys at the top

•             New Widgets: The name of the content provider will be listed on the widget list along with the widget name. Previously only the widget name was provided.

•             New Widget: Traffic (Android) added to list of available widgets

•             Menu Changes/New Apps: Downloads and Google Books added new, Promotional pre-load of Angry Birds removed*.

The update is not being rolled out via OTA. Instead, Infuse owners need to use Samsung’s KIES software to update their handset, which is only available for Windows. So, if you use a Mac and own an Infuse 4G, you are out of luck!

Also, Infuse owners who are hoping that their phone will get the Ice Cream Sandwich update, should give up the hope! I am pretty sure AT&T and Samsung will not roll out any further software updates for the handset, forget OS updates.

(Source)

US Cellular customers finally has a reason to cheer. US Cellular recently announced that the company will be launching the much-awaited 4G LTE network next month. The initial rollout of 4G LTE includes select cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma. US Cellular is the first wireless carrier to offer 4G LTE in several of these markets. The company also announced a couple of 4G LTE devices including the new Samsung Galaxy S Aviator as well as the popular Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.

“With 4G LTE speeds, you can quickly get what you want when you need it,” said Mary N. Dillon, president and CEO of U.S. Cellular. “This 4G LTE network builds upon our industry-leading network satisfaction and is the only one that comes with a valuable rewards program and other unique benefits like Overage Protection and Battery Swap that make our customers the happiest in wireless.”

Samsung Galaxy S Aviator features a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus display, sporting a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) Operating System, 8 megapixel rear-camera, front-facing camera for video calls, HDMI port, Android Market, etc. The complete specs of this device is still unknown. This handset might get the new Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update, later this year.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes with a 10.1 inch WXGA display, sporting a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, 1 GHz dual-core processor, Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) OS, Samsung TouchWiz UX, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, 4G LTE Connectivity, 3 megapixel rear camera with LED Flash, HD (720p) video recording, 2 megapixel front-facing camera, microSD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory, Android Market, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0 and a 6800 mAh battery.

US Cellular will first launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in March, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S Aviator in April. The price of both the devices will be announced later. US Cellular will also announce the next wave of 4G LTE market later this month.

Samsung has confirmed that it won’t be announcing the Galaxy S III at MWC in Barcelona this year. Instead, the company will unveil the handset at a separate Samsung hosted event sometime later in the first half of the year.

Even though Sammy will announce the handset at a later date, the S III will still hit the shelves before the first-half of this year ends. Apparently, Samsung does not want big lag between the global launch and the U.S launch of the S III, as it happened in the case of Galaxy S II.

There is a very strong possibility that Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S III at the Olympics game this year. Samsung is one of the sponsor of the games, and nearly half the world glued to watching the Olympic games, there can be no better platform to launch a product like the Galaxy S III.

Late last month, rumors started floating on the Internet that Samsung might not announce the Galaxy S III at MWC next month. The Galaxy S III is already one of the most anticipated handset of this year, after the Galaxy S II broke all sales record and was the most popular Android handset of 2011.

(Source)

Samsung recently announced the new Galaxy S Advance smartphone. This handset comes with the curved glass design, which enhances the handling of the device and fits the user’s facial form easily. Sadly, this handset runs on the old Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System. The folks living in the UK has a reason to cheer. Three UK recently announced that the new Samsung Galaxy S Advance will be exclusively available for its consumers in the coming weeks.

Sylvia Chind, head of handsets at Three said, “The Samsung Galaxy S Advance combines eye-catching design with powerful technology specs that make for an outstanding smartphone experience. Coupled with Three’s fast 3G network, videos will download quickly so you won’t be left in the dark waiting for the latest movie trailers to download.”

Samsung Galaxy S Advance features a 4 inch Super AMOLED display, sporting a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, 1 GHz dual-core processor, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS, TouchWiz user interface, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 14.4 Mbps HSDPA connectivity and much more.

Other features include a 3.5 mm headset jack, music player with SoundAlive, stereo FM Radio with RDS, 8 GB internal memory, 768 MB RAM, microSD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, ChatON, Readers Hub, Music Hub, Social Hub, Polaris Office, Samsung Kies 2.0, A-GPS, Samsung Apps, Android Market and a 1500 mAh Li-ion battery.

Three UK customers can get the new Samsung Galaxy S Advance for free with a 2 year service agreement. Other major carriers such as O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange has not yet announced the availability of this smartphone in the UK.

Ok, it seems like January is a bad month for Samsung. Two of Samsung’s patent infringement lawsuits against Apple were rejected in Germany just a couple of days ago.

On top of that, today the European Commission has started a formal antitrust investigation against Samsung. EU regulators will be investigating whether Samsung broke antitrust rules by seeking injunctions against rivals like Apple. Samsung had apparently pledged that it would license its essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Despite the fact that the patent lawsuits by Samsung against Apple were rejected, probably because they were essential FRAND patents, the European Commission is opening an investigation against Samsung to assess if it “used certain of its standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European mobile device markets”, and failed to honor its commitment to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to license those patents on fair and reasonable terms.

The European Commission could fine Samsung up to 10% of its global turnover if it is found guilty of breaching the rules. The fine could turn out to be a very hefty amount, in the tens of billions of dollars.

Samsung recently reported its Q4 2011 earnings, recording $42 billion in revenue and $4.7 billion in operating profit.

Samsung has just announced a new and advanced version of the Galaxy S – the Galaxy S Advance. Including the original Galaxy S, Samsung has until now released 4 different variants of the handset  - Galaxy S, S L, S Plus and now the Galaxy S Advance.

The Galaxy S Advance is aimed at the mid-range market, and comes with a dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz. It also packs in 768MB of RAM, a 4-inch Super-AMOLED screen with WVGA (480×800) resolution, a 5MP camera with an LED flash at the back, a VGA cam in the front, and the usual bunch of radios and sensors. The display on the Galaxy S Advance is also curved, like on the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, to facilitate easy handling of the phone.

The Galaxy S Advance will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread right out of the box, with no clear indication from Sammy whether the handset will get the Ice Cream Sandwich update or not.

Samsung did not mention anything about the pricing of the handset, but since the Advance is a mid-range device, it should cost around $100-150 less than the high-end smartphones.

While it is nice to see Samsung trying to re-define the mid-range market with a dual-core handset, the company needs to realize that it is announcing too many phones, which will ultimately create confusion among the consumers.