As Samsung gears up for the launch of the Galaxy S10 next month, the company has come up with a blog post chronicling its major mobile innovations so far. The post shows how far the Korean company and mobile phone technology in general have come in the last couple of decades.
Many of the readers may not be even aware of some of the innovations and models mentioned here, but they were major landmarks in Samsung’s journey to the top. Back in 1999 itself, Samsung released the Samsung B600 with a 10-megapixel camera for capturing memories. It even launched a TV phone to make entertainment portable and more accessible. Even before the smartwatches were a thing, Samsung also launched the watch phone. Three years later, the company announced the True Color Phone with world’s first active matrix LCD.
Of course, the lineup that truly catapulted Samsung to the top is the Galaxy series. The Korea giant opted for Android in the early days of the operating system itself, which resulted in substantial gains for both the company and the OS in the later years. Ironically, the same OS has now turned into a disadvantage for the company with increased commoditization and absence of meaningful differentiation between various smartphones in the market.
Samsung launched the first Galaxy S series device in March 2010. The Galaxy S packed a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, powerful GPU, 5-megapixel rear camera, etc. – all of which was cutting-edge technology then. The company built on the success of the Galaxy S and launched the Galaxy SII, Galaxy S3, and so on in the coming years, pushing the limits of mobile technology with each generation.
Galaxy Note popularized a new category of phones with large displays
The company also popularized a new category of phones with large displays with the launch of the Galaxy Note in 2011. Along with a large screen, powerful internals, and a big battery, the Note Series also brought to market the most famous Android stylus till date – the S Pen, enabling new ways to interact with the phone.
With the Galaxy Note 4 Edge, the company introduced the market to curved displays. The technology was refined further in the next generation models and went on to become a trademark feature of Samsung’s flagship smartphones. In 2017, Samsung debuted the Infinity Display on the Galaxy S8/S8+, turning bezel-less phones into a mainstream trend. Along with the hardware, the company also introduced software solutions like Samsung Knox, Samsung Pay, and others to make Galaxy smartphones more capable.
Despite growing challenges, it’s not game over for Samsung, as the company has many exciting projects in the pipeline. At its developer conference in November last year, the company introduced the Infinity Flex Display and gave a sneak peek of its upcoming foldable smartphone, kickstarting an era of new smartphone design and form factors. The company has also emerged as a major force in the development and deployment of 5G with the highest number of 5G patents, industry-wide collaborations, and the first FCC-approved 5G network equipment.
