Samsung Unveils New Smartphone, Tablet in Apple-Killer Hunt - Bloomberg

Samsung Electronics Co. rolled out a new, larger tablet computer and an update to its Galaxy S smartphone, its latest salvo in the battle with Apple Inc. for dominance of the high-end mobile devices market.

The world's second-largest maker of mobile phones unveiled the phone and tablet, both running Google Inc.'s Android operating system, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today. Samsung said it will also introduce a series of "integrated mobile applications" for downloading music, books, and games, similar to Apple's iTunes entertainment portal.

Samsung and rivals like HTC Corp. are jostling for leadership in the surging market for smartphones, tablets and their associated applications, with the South Korean company focusing on its Galaxy line of Android devices. Apple's iPhone and devices running Android together accounted for about 53 percent of smartphone sales worldwide last year, according to Gartner Inc., crowding out competing offerings from companies including Nokia Oyj and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd.

The 10-inch tablet unveiled by Samsung today, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, will compete more directly with Apple's similarly sized iPad than the 7-inch existing Galaxy Tab. Tablets running Android software boosted their share of the global market almost 10-fold in the fourth quarter, researcher Strategy Analytics said on Jan. 31.

Seoul-based Samsung has become the manufacturer of choice for Google, building the search-engine owner's flagship Nexus S Android phone. That device, along with the updated Galaxy S introduced today, is equipped with near-field communication payment technology that will eventually allow mobile users to pay for retail transactions with a wave of their phones.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Campbell in Barcelona via we3w or mcampbell39@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net