As
Google quietly continues to take over the smartphone space, along with just about every other crevice in the technology realm, a trio of handsets have popped up over in Asia with its
Android operating system loaded on. LG has seen fit to make official a pair of
Snapdragon-based handsets -- the
LG-LU2300 that we spotted earlier in the month, as well as a newfangled LG-SU950 -- the latter of which will go by KU9500 on KT. Both of these will sport a 3.5-inch WVGA display, DivX playback, 3.5mm headphone jack, DMB mobile TV, multimedia playback and a May / June release on Korean soil. Over in Samsung's court, it has just announced its first Android-powered smartphone for the Korean market: the Galaxy A. Otherwise known as the SHW-M100S, this bad Larry will ship with Android 2.1, a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display, 720MHz CPU, mobile TV onboard, DivX playback, a 5 megapixel camera, HD video recording, A-GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi, with availability on SK Telecom scheduled by the end of this month. Pricing seems to be absent for each of these, but plenty more details can be found in the links sitting just below.
posted April 28th 2010 7:41AM
haha MS is profiting off Android. and theres nothing the fanboys can do about it.
thats what you get for infringing on our rights.
@Natal
Our rights? I am sure you own share in Microsoft...
@Natal Well, as of this moment, that has so little to do with this artcile. Because, MS is profiting off of HTC, which isn't the same as profiting off of Android, since they aren't profiting off of these OEMs and/or Google directly. But, way to try to make that point anyways.
@Natal
Our? get off the basement dude, mom's soup already on the table.
engadget, only the galaxy S matters...
@blindguymcsqueezy If you'll look at the SHW M100S, this m120s has a total resemblance (800MHz processor and sports a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen (WVGA), 5MP camera) except of course with the bluetooth 3.0 capability. Reactions. http://bit.ly/samsung-shw-m100-described-again
Not a bad phone, not a bad phone at all.
@Level 5 SHW-M100S is actually featuring "AMOLED Plus" for it's screen.
One thing i dont understand is that if you dont have a goon enough i.e attractive replacement for standard android desktop, why bother .... i mean the samsung phone is not bad at all but the customization is a downer ...i mean it looks hideous ... i'd much rather have the standard android look ... what say ya'll
@Nadeem
I like HTC Sense and stock Android desktops. Maybe they are more in tune with the Korean marketplace then we are and that style is what sells in Korea. These phones are not meant for the US market.
@Nadeem I just read that 30% of their cellphone operating profit comes from Korea. The iPhone is big trouble for them, imitation is something that can maybe partially hold off the competition in Korea. IIRC, in Korea, the iPhone has something like 8% of recently sold devices but over 30% of the profit (due to the fact that the price is much higher, even relatively, since smartphones aren't really big in Korea as of 6 months ago).
Samsung is supposedly bringing out their app store next month, which they've been beta-testing in Britain. This wont matter much to Koreans who use Apple's US marketplace, as Samsung wont be able to come close to competing with the games in the US market, but Samsung will have more than an ability to people who use a Korean marketplace because Apple's app store is limited in Korea (no games) and Samsung can one-up them there while delivering a similar looking product.
Wow, TL;TR, but yes, I agree completely, but understand what they are doing.
@juanvaldez
If Apple has no games on the Korean AppStore it will probably be for regulatory reasons, ie game developers will have to receive age ratings from national bodies before they they can legally sell their games. Why would this be different for Samsung games? Or what is the reason holding up games on the AppStore?
Besides, Samsung's strategy seems to be about their own OS Bada first. These Android phones could be also be more of a stop-gap measure as well a product for the geek niche that is Android's main strength so far. I don't know if Samsung are interested in building comprehensive services for Android, thereby diminishing the value of Bada.
@abugida So, I'll say what I've heard on Bada, and I don't think the details have been announced yet. Part of what I heard was here, in a comment, saying that Bada would serve as a UI that would also have proprietary apps that would be available to all Samsung phones (should they chose, especially any that they custom design/mass license). While I completely agree that it seemed that they cared more about Bada, I think it's somewhat telling that the Wave and Beam both got delayed while the Galaxy S (not Galaxy A) is pushing its shipment date to maybe early June (I've heard rumors recently of before June for Korea, but just yesterday I saw a graphic that listed it as a June ship date for SK telecom). IMO it's the screen, and maybe the software development, but more the Super AMOLED screen, that is holding production up on other devices and they are shipping the device that has the best chance to compete. So, if Bada is more profitable but much less in demand, I think they will continue to support Android (maybe though always with TouchWiz) first and foremost. Currently, it seems like they are trying to enhance Android, but solely for what the Korean market needs are - the primary example I have read about so far will be in their augmented reality and location-based (something I can't remember) but they will be able to serve information to Koreans based on their camera that foreign companies aren't offering. It seems like these will be available to at least top end Android devices.
Next, the games is 100% regulation. Currently in SK, 100% of games have to be approved by a government agency here, Apple decided to just avoid that route, similar to how Youtube forewent some video uploading laws by allowing users to set up accounts in other countries. Currently, Android games are available, but the government has threatened Google with taking out 100% of the app store (unless they can/do segregate their games for the Korean market, currently they definitely don't). But Samsung IMO will have an easier time navigating these waters due to: political influence, local culture, related regulatory experience and even having a size (being smaller) advantage. So, they aren't "holding up games" they are essentially censoring complete apps stores and/or store segments if 100% of games don't pass through their filter. - Bad stuff, but not really surprising considering other similar measures they take with information/gaming censorship.
I like that Android logo front and center on the last one :-)
North Korea is BEST Korea
Yeah from a financial point of veiw and in business sense its probably vital for companies like samsung and LG to make thier phones stand out from the rest of the Android crowd ....
But i am talking about raw graphical appeal... i am a big fan of stock android appearance coz after a lil while of using hero i turned Sense off... but what got me sold onto the phone was senseUI's sexiness, which is not the case with these two phones... but i guess "blindguymcsqueezy" has a point too ... we dont know what ticks the korean mind ....
Both are sexy as hell. IMO, the LG needs to lose the slide out keyboard.
I just showed this to my better half, who is Korean, and she instantly wanted one over her HD2, so on a slightly limited polling of one, they seem to have understood their market.
I would start a campaign to bring these phones to America, but seeing how I'm T-Mobile and these are high powered Android phones, it would probably go to one of 3 or 4 other carriers instead.
Kind of reminds me of my i920 Omnia 2.
Makes me wonder why they don't just install Android on the O2?
I just hope the Galaxy A doesn't suck as hard as the Galaxy i7500. Also I hope they put a version of Android on it that actually supports Bluetooth and WiFi for more than manually pairing one headset at a time (like the i7500). I also hope it's not woefully underpowered and so laggy that you feel like you're hauling around a 486 running Windows 95.
Seriously my biggest regret is my Galaxy i7500.
Who cares?
Bring out the galaxy s!