Samsung has been adding new smartphone variants to the Galaxy S4 brand, like the S4 Mini, S4 Active, S4 Zoom, and S4 Google Edition. The company's next Galaxy S4 smartphone will be very similar to the flagship model but it will include LTE-Advanced 4G technology.
J.K. Shin, co-chief executive officer of Samsung spoke to Reuters on Monday and revealed that the company would be the first to commercially launch a smartphone that includes advanced 4G LTE. The technology is the next step up from existing 4G LTE and would double the data speeds currently found in the wireless standard.
There have been rumors that Samsung was preparing to release an updated Galaxy S4, not including the recent variants announced. The S4 with advanced 4G LTE has started to appear in recent server logs sporting a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Pro processor with clock speeds of 2.3GHz. Samsung confirmed that the smartphone would not use its in-house Exynos processor and would ship with chips built by Qualcomm. Samsung currently ships U.S. Galaxy S4 smartphones with Qualcomm processors.
Samsung had announced that it shipped over 10 million Galaxy S4 smartphones within 30 days of its launch. However, recently analysts said that the interest in Galaxy S4 is slipping and so are the sales. J.K. Shin wanted to address the issue and told Reuters:
"S4 sales remain strong. It's selling far stronger than the (Galaxy) S III ... and the new LTE-Advanced (4G) phone will be another addition to our high-end segment offerings that ensure healthy profit margins."
Shin would not disclose what carrier partners the company is working with to launch the updated Galaxy S4, but he said that the handset would be sold in South Korea as early as this month.
The timing coincides with a Galaxy and ATIV event Samsung is holding on June 20 in London. Samsung had been planning to launch other S4 variants that are not updates to the flagship model, but each of those smartphones have been leaked and prompted th company to officially announce them beforehand. Even though Samsung won't be showing off Galaxy handsets we haven't seen announced in the last few weeks, it appears that the company is looking to capitalize on the Galaxy S4 brand's success. It is now expected to show off four new S4 smartphones at the event, on top of the two Galaxy S4 flagships being shipped, and the S4 Google Editon, bringing the S4 family up to 7 members. Samsung definitely wants to cover its bases and spoil the consumers with choices when it comes to its S4 brand.
The S4 with advanced 4G LTE will only work on carriers that support the new technology and we'll likely hear those details and more on June 20.
