After Apple introduced us to the world of iPhone in 2007, it became kind of a household name and grew to be the most popular smartphone in the history of smartphones. Other companies like Nokia, BlackBerry, and Samsung were struggling to come up with an innovation that could shake the iPhone empire. Android came forth and started a revolution as we know it. Android’s diversity in the form of an open source mobile operating system, licensable to OEMs made it a huge success. The Google Play app store helped a lot.
When OEMs like Sony, HTC, and Samsung came up with all kinds of amazing hardware and software innovations to work with the Android operating system, a multi-tasking PC-like platform was possible outside Apple. This did really popularize the smartphones. One important milestone in the smartphone revolution is the Galaxy series of phones introduced by Samsung, especially Galaxy S series, introduced back in 2010.
On Oct 26, 2011, Samsung announced that the Galaxy S phones—S and S II have sold over 30 million units. iPhone’s success should be read along with this. iPhone did sell far more units than Galaxy S and S II did. In the most recent quarter ended in , Apple did report 47.8 million iPhones were sold. We looked through the press releases made by Apple over time, and a total of 318.945 million iPhones were sold since its beginning in 2007.
That is the total number of iPhones sold, and it is ten times the sales of Galaxy S and S II combined.
Then came along, Galaxy S III. With one of the largest screens and quad-core processing power, Galaxy S III did achieve a monster sales record. It was in that Samsung made this announcement. Galaxy S III had made 30 million sales. In one of the recent press releases, Samsung announced S series phones have sold over 100 million units. By September and November last year, Samsung Galaxy S III was confirmed to be the highest selling smartphone in the market, surpassing iPhone as well.
There is no other smartphone in the history of smartphones that have come anywhere near the sales record of these two smartphone families, iPhone and Galaxy S.
Those Old Galaxy Devices
Galaxy S Series started off with the first device, back in 2010, known by that name, Galaxy S. Here it is.
Briefly, the technical specifications were as follows: 4 inch Super AMOLED display, WVGA resolution (800×480 px), Samsung Exynos 3 processor (1 GHz single-core), 512 MB RAM, up to 16 GB storage, and running Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread operating system.
The phone is not powerful by today’s standards. In 2010, it was one of the smartphones with the highest configuration. The competition was iPhone 3GS, HTC Evo 4G, Droid Incredible (also from HTC), Nokia N8, etc. Although there were devices like Evo 4G with slightly superior hardware specifications, Galaxy S did make it to the top.
Then came Samsung Galaxy S II, in May 2011. The device sort of looks like iPhone (as do several other Samsung devices), and it spawned a long-lasting legal battle with Apple. Oddly enough, Galaxy S II was not regarded by Apple to be one of the infringing devices. Here is the S II for you to look at:
The tech specs were a major improvement over Galaxy S. S II in fact was the highest-specification device at the time of release, and became an instant hit. It is worth mentioning that Galaxy S II started the most prolific smartphone growth that Samsung is experiencing today. It had 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus display (it is Super AMOLED Plus, as opposed to Super AMOLED on S III, and Plus is definitely better) 480×800 px, Exynos 4 dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, Android Gingerbread (upgradable to 4.1 Jelly Bean), 1 GB RAM, 16/32 GB storage, 8 MP camera, etc.
It did have competition in the form of iPhone 4, Motorola Droid Bionic (Verizon’s Droid), HTC Evo 3D, Sony Xperia Play, LG Nitro HD, Motorola Atrix 4G, etc., to name a few. A few devices released after S II’s launch, such as iPhone 4S and 2012’s release of Nokia Lumia 900 also came with amazing technical specifications.
About time when Samsung started to feel that Galaxy S II was losing out on technical specs, they made a slightly modified version available, in the form of Galaxy S II Skyrocket on the AT&T network. It did have slightly modified features like a 4.5 inch screen and Snapdragon 1.2 GHz processor (that supports LTE better). Another recent modification to the S II was released very recently in the form of Galaxy S II Plus.
Through fierce competition, Galaxy S II emerged as a highly popular device, and has sold 40 million units as of . These amazing achievements do set the Galaxy S family apart.
Galaxy S III
Samsung Galaxy S II’s amazing success paved way for Samsung to come up with a better, more advanced, faster challenger, known as Galaxy S III. Before the launch of S III, Samsung did launch another of its most successful products—Samsung Galaxy Note. Galaxy S III had a smaller screen than Note, and did not come with an S-pen. Still, Galaxy S III, just as supposed, broke all sales records.
One or two very important aspects behind Samsung’s success are its high-end configuration with Galaxy S II at the time of availability, and its strong hold on the Super AMOLED display technology, regarded to be one of the best of mobile display technologies. Things that don’t favor Samsung are its build quality and battery life (which I suppose you could rectify with an updated firmware and other steps).
Galaxy S III was unveiled on , more than one year after S II was released. Galaxy S IV’s launch of today is relatively early, you should know. It was released with one of the greatest technical specifications of all smartphones in the industry. It is almost a phablet with its 4.8 inch screen.
While the edge design is not personally appealing to me, the smartphone excels in more factors than any other smartphone in the industry to date. Briefly, the technical specifications are Exynos 4 quad-core processor clocked at 1.4 GHz (or Snapdragon S4 1.5 GHz dual-core), 4.8 inch Super AMOLED HD (720p), 8 MP camera, up to 32 GB storage and 64 GB SDXC, 1/2 GB RAM, Android 4.0.4 ICS (upgradable to Jelly Bean), NFC, 4G LTE, etc.
The phone is available in all major carriers, and in 145 countries, two important factors behind its immense success. In some countries, the phone has 2 GB of RAM as well. It built on the platform provided by Galaxy S II and became so popular. By , the smartphone has sold over 40 million units. We don’t have the most recent sales figures from Cupertino, but it is safe to assume Galaxy S III has become the most feared competitor of Apple.
In Conclusion
Galaxy S series is continuing. Within a few hours from now, at 7 pm Eastern Daylight time, in the Times Square, New York City, Samsung is unveiling the next Galaxy S smartphone. The unveiling is a little early as compared to S III’s release. It is an exciting time for smartphone buffs around the world. We have a lot of information as to what is expected of the device.
You can watch the unveiling live through Samsung’s YouTube channel.
In the last few days, we have been hearing a lot about 4.99 inch Super AMOLED Plus display (yes Plus is coming back), eye-tracking feature, 13 MP camera, 8-core processor, and a few others, on S IV. Everything that we have been hearing about will be clear within a few hours. You can follow me on Twitter @bluebugletech to know the latest about Galaxy S IV.
To get the Galaxy devices, go to: Galaxy S Phones from Amazon Wireless.