Posts filed under Samsung

Samsung have announced more new phones today than I can possibly blog about. So to help you navigate through their maze of product announcements, here’s a brief overview, some links, press release cuttings, and images.

Mobile TV

Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., (Samsung) today affirmed its global leadership in the burgeoning mobile TV category by demonstrating several “world’s firsts” among its line-up of nine handsets crossing multiple mobile broadcasting platforms – Satellite DMB (S-DMB), Terrestrial DMB (T-DMB), Media FLO and DVB-H. These various mobile broadcasting standards will bring large-volume multimedia, television and radio content direct to consumers via their mobile handset.

Samsung also will demonstrate for the first time a handset developed for Qualcomm’s MediaFLO mobile broadcasting platform. Beyond its wireless multimedia content capabilities, the handset’s two megapixel camera with integrated flash allows users to capture still images and video, which can then be viewed on the phone’s 262,000-color TFT display, shared with friends via a high-speed data connection or stored on a microSD card in the phone’s external memory slot. Samsung’s iconic swivel screen design will allow users to view streaming video or multicast packet data in landscape mode, further enhancing the multimedia experience.

Links:

• MobileMentalism’s take on the new Samsung SPH-B4100 mobile TV phone
• Samsung’s press release

Much more news, images, links of Samsung’s CES 2006 announcements after the jump.

Although first announced in November 2005, Samsung are showing off their SPH-B4100 Dual DMB mobile TV phone. The SPH-B4100 enables consumers to enjoy both S-DMB (satellite TV) and T-DMB (terrestrial TV) in one phone. With its unique landscape view design, the B4100 gives consumers a more ergonomic device for experiencing mobile TV. The phone also has a Picture-in-Picture (PIP) function allowing consumers to view S-DMB and T-DMB channels at the same time. The B4100 is expected be on the market in early 2006, and will be shown at CES 2006.

[Source: Samsung, SamsungHQ]

Technorati Tags: Samsung, CES2006, mobile, mobileTV

This is Samsung’s new fashion phone, the Samsung D807 mobile phone. Only 14.9mm thin, it comes complete with 1.3 megapixel camera, MicroSD card, MP3 player, and a variety of instant messenger clients. It’s also capable of streaming audio and vidoe, and has 262k-color TFT screeen. The phone is a slider, for those who need to know such things.

More pictures of the Samsung D807 mobile phone after the jump.

[Source: Engadget, AVing.net]

Fresh from yesterday’s breath-taking technology announcements made by Nokia, Samsung are continuing the tech-frenzy by announcing the Samsung SPH-V8200 mobile camera phone with no less than 8 Megapixels!! OK, so a resolution that high is only currently useful to professional photographers, who presumably would use a camera rather than a phone for the day job, but 8 megapixels – wow! Unfortunately, it’s only available in Korea at the moment (doh!), but it’s a sure sign of things to come.

Indeed, Ki-Tae Lee, President of Telecommunication Network, Samsung Electronics, said “Mobile phones will become the hub of all IT devices, being developed into “All in One” device that incorporates functions necessary for a variety of human activities”, and I think he has a point. Mobile phones are swallowing all gadgets in their path with seemingly unstoppable momentum. There must be a limit somewhere though – there’s only so much gadgetry you can shove into such a small form factor, and quad-band radios, megapixel cameras, video cameras, mobile TV players and WLAN connectivity is a lot to shove! But that’s just describing this year’s models that are here now (or soon will be). What’s coming in the mobile phone manufacturer’s R&D labs is a tightly guarded secret. How much other wizardry can be squashed into the little devices remains to be seen, but I don’t think we’re anywhere near the limits yet. Quite glorious!

[source: telecomskorea.com, mobilemag.com]

Fresh from their recent (and pretty disappointing) collaborative efforts with Bang and Olufsen, Samsung have announced they’re collaborating with BMW to integrate the Samsung SGH-i300 into BMW’s infamous iDrive interface. For those not in the know, the iDrive is BMW’s attempt to simplify the user interface of the billion+ gadgets it squeezes into its luxurious cars (expecting you, of course, to pay for each one). The Samsung SGH-i300 connects to the iDrive system via A2DP Bluetooth – allowing for music playback, hands-free calling, and operation of the handset

According to SamsungHQ, Samsung are keen to achieve an iconic brand image comparable to that of BMW. Earlier this year, Samsung had also formed ties with Audi while testing similar mobile phone to vehicle solutions, and have worked with posh hi-fi manufacturer Bang and Olufsen in the design of the Serene posh (i.e. expensive and featureless) mobile phone. It seems Samsung are going for the high-ground, driving up-market and going for the posh sector. Sony Ericsson did this last year, with exceptional results and gloriously gadget-laden phones. Currently, however, all Samsung have to show for their efforts are a mobile phone that’s too posh for its own good (and expensive, and pretentious, and too old…), and a series of tie-ins with other manufacturers. Early days of course, and this could reap real rewards (and, more importantly, really cool phones!), but I really hope their new co-branding srtategy doesn’t end up like Motorola’s, where the products come second to the brand, and the consumer’s left with a really crap phone.