After yesterday’s delve into the past with Nokia, today we have a look at Samsung’s appearance on the Mobile World Congress showfloor. Ever since the announcement of the Innov8, Samsung has made it clear that it is no longer trying to catch up with Nokia, but instead leading the dance with their own moves and rules. The Innov8 might have sold in small numbers, nevertheless it set a standard for things to come from Samsung, and taught them a valuable lesson: bulky devices that look quite normal to average consumers aren’t popular outside of the tech-aware circle.
Omnia HD Or How To Be One Step Ahead Of The Rest
Enter the Omnia HD. Wow. Wow. Let me catch my breath, and repeat Wow. Think of everything you want in a handset, and the Omnia HD has it. Plus a bit more. The humongous OLED capacitive touchscreen will guarantee a breathtaking multimedia experience, an ease of operation and some authentic color rendering. The 8MP camera coupled with HD video recording is nothing short of brilliant, a major step ahead in mobile technology and the main selling point of the Omnia HD. The HDMI output is sheer genius: take your videos in HD and share them in HD on your TV screen, instead of a lousy resolution output. The bundled video editor is a great plus, something we have completely missed since the N95 days on Nokia handsets. Samsung has also gone out of their way to fully customize the OS for touch, which shows in the Camera, the Music Player and the Homescreen for example. They also ported their TouchWiz widget homescreen to the Omnia HD to make it look more like a Samsung and less like a Nokia. Add to all those GPS, Wifi, 3G, a 3.5mm headset for music, an FM Transmitter to share your music on the nearest radio, DLNA and some other complicated initials I don’t understand, top it all with the beloved S60 5th Edition and it’s hard to fault the Omnia HD at anything.
Will The Omnia HD Sell Better Than The Innov8?
As I said at the beginning of this post, the Innov8, no matter how many features it packed, just looked like an ordinary phone, and a huge one at that. Sure it was touting its 8MP camera like a trophee, but consumers had to actually be attracted to it in a shop, turn it around, to see the camera and understand its real power. I think it’s fair to say that not many consumers were attracted by a bulky device that almost looks like double the size of anything else on display.
This is where the Omnia HD is different. That humongous touchscreen on the front will undeniabely attract eyes, maybe just out of curiousity. People will take it in their hands, turn it around, and this is where the series of logos that Samsung has intelligently printed on the back will be important. People will know they’re in the presence of greatness with a handset like this. So yes, although the Omnia HD is still a big handset, just like the Innov8 was, it might have a better chance at selling than the Innov8 did. Plus, its Omnia branding and the TouchWiz homescreen will make sure that loyal Samsung fans will feel at home looking at it, and not confused by the standard S60 standby.
Red Curtain Rise, All Eyes On Samsung
Although I have a few concerns in regards to the battery life of the Omnia HD, its bulkiness, its unannounced price and how it works in real life, there’s no denying that just like the Innov8, the Omnia HD is setting a new standard for mobile devices, and proving once more that convergence is no longer a concept but a reality. To tell you the truth, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I believe that if any manufacturer can push the convergence concept further than we’d imagine, it’s Samsung. They already have a lot of expertise manufacturing and selling standalone TVs, Music Players, Cameras, Mp3 Players, Home Cinemas, Computers, Projectors, even house appliances… so they have the resources for convergence in-house, unlike Nokia, Apple, HTC and many other device manufacturers who have to look for this kind of expertise outside and build it from the ground up for their devices. Samsung finally have realised that they have a clear advantage, and they’re exploiting it to the maximum. I applaud that.
So what’s next for Samsung in 2009 and 2010 in the Symbian community? I would bet that at least 2 to 3 other device announcements are coming this year, all probably sporting S60 5th Edition. They should have a less important featureset than the Omnia HD making them more affordable. Samsung have pretty much established a 1-year cycle for their flagships, so if the Omnia HD is this year’s flagship, I can’t even begin to imagine what 2010′s flagship would be like!
