Millions have been waiting for the ”Smartphone of 2012” since it was just a mere rumor. Well, it launched last month in London, and before the month lapsed, it was made available for the tens of millions who had pre-ordered it. It always feels good to know that now it is within reach. It has already been available in the market from one of the retailers, Fonexpress for Kshs. 65,000, but a visit there within this week returned the feedback that the stock is nolonger available. It’s a sin not to have stock of the smartphone with the most demand. Considering the pricing, Samsung Galaxy S 3 will be a fast mover even in this market. Safaricom now has it in their shops for Kshs. 60,000. And it’s also my understanding that the two colour options, the Pebble blue and Marble white, unlike previously where the Pebble Blue wasn’t available in some stores.
That was the price that the previous Galaxy and flagship phone of 2011, the Samsung Galaxy S II was selling at during launch. It was the fastest selling smartphone of 2011, with 20 million devices sold in the first 10 months. That was a record on it’s own, it contributed to the ousting of iPone as the best seller of 2011. I would assume that with the hype Galaxy S III had all through since before launch till now, the numbers will be even more. Samsung Galaxy Note, which is a smartphone-tablet hybrid sold for more than that at Kshs. 70,000.
Samsung Galaxy S III, above having very awesome specifications, notably the 1.4GHz Quad core Exynos processor built by Samsung and the quite responsive 4.8 inch SuperAMOLED display, it has very much to offer in terms of software. It runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with TouchWiz 4.0 and a horde of customizations like the Samsung Smart Stay, S Beam, Allshare Play, Pop Up Play, Smart Alert, Direct call and many other features that I highlighted here.
Samsung Galaxy S III does get a center position between the Galaxy Note which was perceived by many as a large screen phone for the average user, and the 4.3 inch Galaxy S II which was widely accepted as a good screen size. The trend nowadays is moving from the 3.5 inch screen size that Apple had stuck with for all their iPhones. There is also a rumour that future iPhones will be 4 inch, and global standards are edging towards that. And the fact that the Galaxy S 3 shape is abit curved, promising to allow one use the 4.8 screen quite comfortably with one hand, unlike the case that was Galaxy Note where users are forced in many circumstances to use both hands to reach out to the other end of the screen when typing. Well, the fact that these smartphones are multi-touch shouldn’t be lost upon us, since you are able to do more with several fingers on the screen typing fast.
