Samsung, Google to powwow on Apple

Samsung mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun holds the company’s latest mobile device — the Galaxy Note 2 — during a launching event at Samsung’s main office in downtown Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Kim Dong-ho

Company raises handset sale target to 400 million

By Kim Yoo-chul

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday that it will hold a top-level meeting with its biggest software business partner Google today.

Samsung, which is the representative of Google’s Android community in an ongoing fight with Apple, is pulling Google into its battle to seek royalties for patents.

``I will meet Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt on Thursday in Seoul,’’ said Samsung mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun at a launch event to unveil Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 held at the company’s main office in downtown Seoul.

Shin declined to give details, but stressed that strategic meetings with major carriers in the United States are set for next week.

Samsung has already been in talks for the development of modified products aimed at escaping from Apple’s design-related patents.

The Google representative arrived in Seoul late Tuesday and Schmidt will hold a news conference with local and overseas media at Google Korea headquarters, downtown Seoul, today, to roll out its Nexus 7 tablet, here.

Lois Kim, the head of communications at Google Korea, refused to give any details about Schmidt’s plans during his stay in Seoul.

The top meeting comes after Apple faces becoming embroiled in a further clash after Samsung said earlier it was intending to sue the firm over technology patent violations in the new iPhone 5.

Meanwhile, a panel of U.S. federal judges is to follow up a separate complaint by Google which is seeking a far-reaching sales ban against Apple products.

Although the fight with Apple is becoming more dramatic, Shin clarified his bullish stance to boost handset sales by saying Samsung doesn’t much care about the ongoing litigation-related issues.

``Samsung revised up this year’s total handset sales target to 400 million from our earlier projection of 370 million,’’ he said.

The company is widening its gap with Apple in phone shipments. During the second quarter of the year, Samsung and Apple sold 50 million and 26 million phones, respectively, according to market research firms.

Officials said the gap is expected to further widen due to Apple’s slowing innovation in products. Samsung has shortened its new mobile launch cycle _ it introduced various flagship products including the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 to respond to faster changes in consumer demand.

In contrast, Apple is still sticking with its ``one smartphone per year’’ policy, making it difficult for the Cupertino-based firm to fight with Samsung in the race for smartphone market domination.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which was introduced at last month’s IFA technology fair in Germany, is a hybrid smartphone and tablet PC. The revised sales target by Samsung is based on Shin’s optimism for the success of the just-launched device.

``I have no doubt that the Note 2 will hit the jackpot. We don’t have any problems to sell over 3 million Note 2s during the first three months after the device was launched,’’ said Shin.

The Note 2 will be available to consumers in the United States from late next month or early November. Samsung plans to roll out the device in 12 countries via 260 clients, said Samsung.

``In the United States, the Galaxy Note was only introduced via AT&T. But the Note 2 will be released by all major U.S. carriers,’’ said the mobile chief, adding leading carriers in Europe are going to definitely roll out the Samsung product.

In terms of hardware specifications, the Note 2 is far better than Apple’s iPhone5. The Note 2 features a 5.5-inch high-definition (HD) Super OLED screen, while the iPhone5 still uses a 4-inch Retina Display supplied by LG Display.

The product uses a display with 1280-by-720 resolution and a 16:9 contrast ratio at a density of 267 pixels-per-inch (ppi) _ the iPhone’s screen has a 1136-by-640 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio at a density of 326 ppi.

The Note2 is powered by 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest version of Android software. The version included many improvements, including Google Now, Project Butter and Google Wallet.

The touch lag issue has been considered Android's biggest weakness, but Google Now, a voice-activated app available in over 40 languages, seemed to have resolved the issue as it provides users with personalized services by recognizing repeated actions. The function is based on Google's extensive search database.

The Galaxy Note 2 provided various multitasking with an enhanced S-Pen functionality. The Air View function offers a quicker and easier search into content by allowing users to hover with the S Pen over an email, S Planner, image gallery, or video to preview contents without having to open it, said Samsung in a statement.

``More consumers in Europe and the United States are acknowledging the Galaxy Note’s S-Pen functionality. We’ve been receiving very constructive responses from consumers in existing developed markets,’’ said Shin.