By Kim Yoo-chul
HONG KONG ― Samsung has unveiled a new smartphone just a few days after Apple’s new iPhone 4S went on sale.
The new device powered by Google’s Android software is hoped to challenge any success of the iPhone 4S with Samsung’s strategic partnership with the U.S.-based software giant amid fierce patent fights with Apple.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the first smartphone to use Android 4.0, also known as the Ice Cream Sandwich ― the mobile system integrates tablet and smartphone software, according to the South Korean company.
Nexus is the fifth Google-customized smartphone and this is the second time for Samsung to manufacture Google-ordered mobile phones since it introduced the Nexus S in December last year.
The launch, held at the Hong Kong Convention Center, had been delayed in tribute to the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
``The launch event had earlier been set for Oct. 11, however, it’s been postponed to today. The Galaxy Nexus will be introduced globally starting from November,’’ said the head of Samsung’s telecommunications division, Shin Jong-kyun.
``Samsung will aggressively promote the product in our key markets during the approaching year-end shopping season,’’ said the executive at the launch, Wednesday.
Shin said the rearrangement of the release doesn’t have any direct links with the ongoing legal dispute with Apple and added the firm just took some time to pay ``sincere tribute’’ to the death of Jobs.
The new device has a 4.65-inch touch screen with a 1,280-by-720 resolution OLED.
The latest Apple phone has a 3.5-inch monitor and uses LG Display’s ``Retina Display,’’ with 960x640 pixel resolution.
Other key details include a 1.2-gigahertz dual-core processor and the Nexus supports near-field communications (NFC) and has a five-megapixel rear-facing camera, Samsung said in a statement.
``Samsung upgraded the camera-related functions. The device well represents the constructive partnership with Google,’’ said the company executive in a speech at the Hong Kong Convention Center packed with reporters.
Shin dismissed market speculation that Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility will have a negative impact on the Samsung-Google alliance.
Google senior vice president of mobile, Andy Rubin, stressed the Ice Cream Sandwich mobile operating system (OS) is an innovative Android platform that runs both on smartphones and tablets during a rare visit for a launch event.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablets and Galaxy S smartphones are able to operate on the new Google platform, making it possible for application developers to provide more customized content for the devices.
Several features such as Android Beam and Face Unlock show off Google’s fine-tuned technologies and the Nexus highlights the advanced Android software, said Rubin.
The launch came after Apple reported stronger quarterly earnings during the third quarter and analysts say the new Nexus is showing Samsung’s intent to take the lead from Apple in smartphones.
Samsung ranked as the world’s top maker of smartphones in the third quarter of this year by selling 29 million.
Shin said Samsung will partner Google to release another ``reference smartphone,’’ though he gave no additional details.