@CTIA: Samsung Mobile aims for new frontier with Galaxy S

LAS VEGAS — In a dark, ambient-lit room with music from Blue Man Group blaring to get the crowd in the mood, Samsung Mobile today announced its latest smartphone, the Galaxy S.
The 4-inch super AMOLED touchscreen device runs on Android 2.1 and a 1 GHz processor developed by Samsung. At 9.9mm thin, the device packs all of the latest smartphone technology into the “thinnest, full-featured smartphone in the galaxy,” said Omar Khan, SVP of strategy, products and services at Samsung.
The technology juggernaut also took the opportunity to introduce S Life or Smart Life – a custom-built user experience that tweaks and improves the content and features smartphone users demand in a more cohesive environment. There’s also a Daily Briefing feature, which gathers custom information from a series of widgets and delivers them to the user on demand.
“We’ve packed powerful innovative cutting-edge technology into this device,” Khan added. “Together the Samsung Galaxy X and Smart Life are going to give people experiences that are integrated, immersive and intelligent.”
The features available on the device are vast. In a move striking similar to some of its competitors, Samsung developed a Social Hub that integrates the entire universe of social media and plugs user into their many outlets in a single interface.
Kevin Thau, VP of mobile business at Twitter, was invited on stage to applaud Samsung’s efforts and describe how “products like the Galaxy S will help put a new face on Twitter,” he said.
“Everything that you’re viewing and working with on Twitter will look its very best,” he added. “Twitter is on board with this new generation of smartphone.”
Executives from Skiff and Paramount also came on stage to announce their plans for making their content available on the new device as well.
According to Samsung, the Super AMOLED screen is 20% brighter, 80% less reflective in direct sunlight and increases battery life by 20%.
After the suits were done on stage, Samsung turned things over to a lead male actor that walked the audience through the day in the life of a Galaxy S user. An ensemble of other professional actors continually moved props around on stage and starred alongside him to help visualize the live vignette that played out on stage.
Beginning with the notably smoothing alarm offered on the device, the audience was treated to a live, albeit rehearsed, demonstration of a user’s daily routine with his device.
Another key feature of the Galaxy S is a Layar Reality Browser, powered by Tele Atlas, that acts as a visual overlay that updates relevant location information on the screen when the camera is used to capture a user’s surroundings. The device also includes HD video capture, a wireless tethering app, Swype, a remote controller for any Samsung television and allshare via DLNA, which allows users to display media-rich content from their device on compatible PCs, TVs and digital cameras.
Matt Kapko can be reached at mkapko@ardenmedia.com.