BARCELONA-Samsung unmasked Monday its new flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone armed with a fingerprint scanner and an integral heartrate sensor to guard its place because the world’s industry leader.
Taking center stage on the opening day of the world’s biggest mobile fair in Barcelona, Spain, the South Korean giant simultaneously unmasked a connected bracelet for health-concerned clients.
A Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone, left, and a Samsung Gear 2 are displayed at the Samsung Galaxy Studio, in Ny, Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. Samsung on Monday unmasked a fresh smartphone with an integral heartrate monitor to check three upcoming fitness devices, because the Korean company tries to show its technological wizardry in to life style services and products. AP PHOTO/RICHARD DREW
Samsung made about 30 % of most smartphones sold on the planet this past year, not quite twice the share of archrival Apple, which traditionally skips the annual World Mobile Congress.
But Samsung, which announced its new devices on the sidelines of the Feb. 24-27 event, is nonetheless scrambling for new revenue sources as competition in mature markets intensifies.
In challenging to stick out from your competition, including a rising challenge from China, Samsung showed off the Galaxy S5 with a light sensor on the trunk that provides a heartrate reading once the user touches it along with his or her fingertip.
Although case is plastic, much like previous versions of the Galaxy group of smartphones, it really is water and dust-proof, and contains a leathery feel on the trunk.
Full hi-def 5. 1-inch screen
The smartphone has a full hi-def 5. 1-inch screen, a 16-megapixel camera and, catching up with Apple, the house button doubles up as a fingerprint reader to unlock these devices or even to secure documents.
The telephone comes with an extreme battery-saving mode that turns the display black-and-white and retains just six key applications.
To boost connections, it could combine a wifi signal and a mobile signal.
“With the Galaxy S5, Samsung is certainly going back again to basics to spotlight delivering the capabilities that matter most to your consumers, ” said Samsung mobile division chief J. K. Shin, who presented these devices within an event that featured a musical prelude by way of a live orchestra.
Novel smart devices
Worldwide smartphone sales surged 42. 3 % to 968 million units this past year, in accordance with industry research group Gartner Inc.
However the growth was powered nearly entirely by developing markets, disguising a slowdown in mature markets such as for example Western Europe and america, which will be the most profitable.
Because of this, mobile manufacturers are revealing a string of novel smart devices to attempt to unlock new revenue streams.
The Samsung Fit bracelet follows that trend, with a curved touch-screen display and a heart-rate sensor to greatly help give users feedback throughout exercise sessions.
Smartwatch Gear 2
The prior day, Samsung unmasked an updated smartwatch, the apparatus 2, which also offers sports tracking computer software and a heart-rate monitor, and also a camera.
Samsung was among the first major smartphone makers to make a smartwatch when it launched the apparatus last September, but that version won just a lukewarm reception from critics who said it had been unfashionable and clumsy.
Hours after Samsung launched the apparatus 2, rising Chinese smartphone maker Huawei unmasked a connected watch of its.
Huawei, already a significant force in building mobile networks and the planet Number 3 smartphone maker in 2013, showed off its TalkBand, to be sold for 99 euros ($136).
South Korean manufacturer LG said on a single day that it could launch its first smartwatch in 2014.
Sony unmasked its Xperia Z2 smartphone Monday, the initial new edition of its flagship device because it announced this month the sale of its stagnant PC business to target alternatively on smartphones and tablets.
The waterproof phone, available from March, includes a full hi-def 5. 2-inch screen and a 20. 7 megapixel camera that may just take ultra-high resolution 4K video, alongside noise-canceling audio.
The struggling Japanese group also entered the fray for wearable devices, releasing the SmartBand SWR10, a bracelet that is included with a credit card applicatoin allowing users to log events and photographs taken throughout the day in addition to tracking what lengths they walk and checking their sleep cycle.
“Our SmartWear experience goes far beyond health, ” Sony Mobile leader Kunisama Suzuki boasted. -David Williams, Emmanuelle Trecolle
