South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday that it will showcase its new high-end smartphone model, the Galaxy Note 7, in the United States next month.
The showcase event will take place on Aug. 2 in New York and will be streamed live on the tech firm's website, according to Samsung.
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(Yonhap) |
Similar events will be held simultaneously in London and Rio de Janeiro, the company said.
The released invite suggests that the new Note will offer an iris scanner, which uses the unique patterns in the user's eye as a mode of authentication.
Other specs and features were not announced but industry watchers expect a 5.7-inch screen with super active mode organic light-emitting diode display and the 4 gigabyte DRAM chip.
Samsung said this year's edition of the large-screen phone with the S pen will skip version six and jump right to version seven.
Industry watchers guessed the decision is because the iPhone 7 is expected to launch later in the fall. Samsung's archrival Apple Inc. has held its launching events in September in recent years.
Last year, Samsung released the Galaxy Note 5 earlier-than-expected in August to avoid direct competition with Apple's iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6S Plus.'
The watchers also analyzed that the decision is part of the firm's effort to bring out a synergy effect as the new flagship smartphones-- the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge -- have become a global hit.
Market experts estimate that Samsung's combined shipments of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge hovered around 15 million units in the April-June period.
Koh Dong-jin, head of Samsung's mobile division, painted a rosy picture about the new Note, saying that a lot has improved for users.
"The function of the Note has been largely improved and the software has been upgraded for the convenience of the users," Koh told reporters at a Samsung Electronics office in southern Seoul.
As to Samsung's third-quarter earnings, Koh said he is not worried about the numbers.
"The global smartphone market itself shrank," Koh said, forecasting that it would be a little tough later in the year.
Last week, Samsung estimated that its second-quarter operating income increased more than 17 percent from a year earlier on the back of robust sales of its flagship smartphones. Operating profit is estimated at 8.1 trillion won ($6.98 billion) in the April-June period, up 17.39 percent from the 6.9 trillion won posted a year earlier. (Yonhap)
