New releases include flagship touch-screen ‘Jet’

Samsung launched five new high profile handsets in a bid to snatch the number one spot back from Nokia this week.

The manufacturer unveiled its main flagship device for 2009, ‘Jet’, as well as four new devices in the Omnia range, at large scale launches in London, Dubai and Singapore.

The touch-screen Jet (pictured), which has an iPhone-like ‘zoom’ capability, took almost all of the limelight at the London event (15 June). The phone will go head to head with the iPhone 3G S and the Nokia N97, as all three enter the market within the next month.

Nokia is currently number one on UK market share, but the margin is narrow and Samsung hopes its latest clutch of big releases can propel it back to the top.

Samsung has arguably released more high profile handsets this year than ever. In the past few months alone, the manufacturer has launched the Tocco Ultra Edition, i8910 (Omnia) HD and the Pixon 12, as well as the five devices unveiled last night.

Some believe the aggressive strategy will hit Samsung’s profits, but the manufacturer is showing no signs of letting up.

Samsung Mobile UK’s general manager, Derek Williamson, told Mobile: ‘There will be more big launches this year, it won’t stop here. One will be our Google Android device, which will be along similar lines to the Jet’s specs, looks and feel.

‘We’ve been back and forth with Nokia, but we prefer to focus on bringing out great products, and our market share will take care of itself.’

The Jet is expected to hit shelves next week and has been offered to all networks and retailers. The device offers an 800MHz processor, a
3.1-inch AMOLED touch-screen and a five-megapixel camera.

A high five?
The five launches Samsung hopes will propel it to the top spot:
Samsung Jet
A wannabe ‘iPhone killer’ offering a 3.1-inch AMOLED screen, 800MHz processor and five-megapixel camera. Samsung’s big hope for the second half of 2009.

Omnia II (i8000)
A Windows Mobile 6.1 follow-up to the original Omnia. It looks almost identical to the Jet and offers the world’s largest AMOLED display screen at 3.7 inches.

Omnia Pro (B7610)
A hybrid device offering both a QWERTY keyboard and full touch-screen. Billing it as a business phone that’s just as usable on your day off.

Omnia pro (B7320)
This compact QWERTY device bears a strong resemblance to Nokia’s E71. Offers corporate push-email as well as social networking applications.

Omnia lite (B7300)
The black sheep of the family, looking nothing like the rest. It has similar specs to the Pro B7320, but doesn’t have a QWERTY keyboard.

Samsung launches I7500, The Company’s First Android-Powered Mobile Phone.
Seoul (Korea Newswire) April 27, 2009 05:08 PM — Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today unveiled the I7500, its first Android-powered mobile phone. With a launch of I7500, Samsung became the first company among the global top three mobile phone manufacturers to unveil an Android-powered phone.

“Samsung is among the earliest members of the Open Handset Alliance and has been actively moving forward to introduce the most innovative Android mobile phone,” said JK Shin, Executive Vice President and Head of Mobile Communication Division in Samsung Electronics. “With Samsung’s accumulated technology leadership in mobile phone industry and our consistent strategy to support every existing operating system, I believe that Samsung provides the better choices and benefits to our consumers” he added.

The Samsung I7500 is a cutting-edge smartphone, featuring a 3.2″ AMOLED full touch screen and 7.2Mbps HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, giving users access to Google™ Mobile services and full web browsing at blazing speeds.

The Samsung I7500 offers users access to the full suite of Google services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Calendar™, and Google Talk™. The integrated GPS receiver enables the comprehensive use of Google Maps features, such as My Location, Google Latitude, Street View, local search and detailed route description. Hundreds of other applications are available in Android Market. For example, the application Wikitude, a mobile travel guide, allows consumers to access details of unknown sights via location-based Wikipedia articles.

Based on Samsung’s proven product leadership, Samsung I7500 comes with latest multimedia features. The large and vivid 3.2″AMOLED display ensures the brilliant representation of multimedia content and enjoyable full touch mobile experience. Along with supporting a 5-megapixel camera and various multimedia codec formats, the I7500 also provides a long enough battery life (1500mAh) and generous memory capacity up to 40GB (Internal memory: 8GB, External memory: Up to 32GB) to enjoy all the applications and multimedia content. The phone also boasts its slim and compact design with mere 11.9mm thickness.

The Samsung I7500 will be available in major European countries from June, 2009.

News Source: my3G