Samsung Galaxy S III

Design work on the S III started in late 2010 under the supervision of Chang Dong-hoon, Samsung's vice president and Head of the Design Group of Samsung Electronics. From the start, the design group concentrated on a trend which Samsung dubs "organic", which suggests that a prospective design should reflect natural elements such as the flow of water and wind. Some of the results of this design were the curved outline of the phone and its home screen's "Water Lux" effect, where taps and slides produce water ripples. The prototypes, of which taking photos was forbidden, were locked in a separate laboratory, accessible only by core designers. They were transported by trusted company employees, instead of third-party couriers. "Because we were only permitted to see the products and others weren't," explained Principal Engineer Lee Byung-Joon, "we couldn't send pictures or drawings. We had to explain the Galaxy S III with all sorts of words." Despite such security measures, specifications of one of the three units were leaked by Vietnamese Web site Tinhte, although it was not the selected design. Speculation in the general public and media outlets regarding the handset's specifications began gathering momentum several months before its formal unveiling in May 2012. In February 2012, prior to the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, there were rumors that the handset would incorporate a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, a display of 1080p (1080×1920 pixels) resolution, a 12-megapixel rear camera and a HD Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen. More accurate rumored specifications included 2 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, 4G LTE, a screen, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a thick chassis. After inviting reporters in mid-April, Samsung launched the Galaxy S III during the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 event at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London, United Kingdom, on 3 May 2012, instead of unveiling their products earlier in the year during either the World Mobile Congress or Consumer Electronics Show (CES). One explanation for this decision is that Samsung wanted to minimize the time between its launch and availability. The keynote address of the hour-long event was delivered by Loesje De Vriese, Marketing Director of Samsung Belgium. Following the launch of the Galaxy S4 in June 2013, Samsung was reportedly retiring the phone earlier than planned because of low sales numbers and to streamline manufacturing operations. == Features ==

Hardware (left) and the Galaxy S III (right)|alt=Photo of two phones turned off held next to each other with warm yellow ambience lightning. The phones are resting on a person's hand. Design The S III has a plastic chassis measuring long, wide, and thick, with the device weighing . Samsung abandoned the rectangular design of the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II, and instead incorporated round corners and curved edges, reminiscent of the Galaxy Nexus. The device has been available in several color options: white (marketed as "marble white"), black, grey, brushed dark blue (marketed as "pebble blue"), red (marketed as "garnet red"), and brown. A "Garnet Red" model was made available exclusively to US carrier AT&T on 15 July 2012. In addition to the touchscreen, the S III has several physical user inputs, including a home button located below the screen, an option key to the left side of the home button, a back key on the right side of the home button, a volume key on the left edge and a power/lock key on the right. At the top there is a headphone jack and one of the two microphones on the S III; the other is located below the home button. According to Samsung, the Exynos 4 Quad doubles the performance of the Exynos 4 Dual used on the S II, while using 20 percent less power. Samsung had also released several 4G LTE versions—4G facilitates higher-speed mobile connection compared to 3G—in selected countries to exploit the corresponding communications infrastructures that exist in those markets. The South Korean and Australian versions are a hybrid of the international and 4G-capable versions. Storage The S III has a maximum of 2 GB of RAM, depending on the model. The phone comes with either 16, 32, or 64 GB storage; additionally, microSDXC storage offers a further 64 GB for a potential total of 128 GB. Moreover, 50 GB of space is offered for two years on Dropbox—a cloud storage service—for purchasers of the device, doubling rival HTC's 25 GB storage for the same duration. and displays the video's current file size (in kilobytes) as well as remaining storage capacity (in megabytes) in real-time during video recording. Samsung improved the camera's software over that of its predecessor to include zero shutter lag, and a Burst shot mode that allows capturing up to 20 full-resolution photos per row in quick succession. Another feature, Best Shot, allows selecting the best photo out of eight frames captured in quick succession. The phone can also take pictures while recording videos. Photos can additionally be captured using voice commands such as "cheese", "shoot", "photo", and "picture". The shortcuts on the left pane are customizable. The rear-facing camera is complemented by a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera that can record 720p videos. The Galaxy S3 records videos with stereo audio and is able to capture 6 MP (3264×1836) photos during video recording, which is the full 16:9 aspect ratio section of the 4:3 image sensor. Battery The S III's user-replaceable Li-ion 2,100 mAh battery is said to have a 790-hour standby time or 11 hours of talk time on 3G, compared to 900 hours in standby and 21 hours of talk time on 2G. The battery can be wirelessly charged using a special charging pad (sold separately) that utilizes magnetic resonance to produce a magnetic field through which electricity could be transferred. The S III is advertised as having an MHL port that can be used both as a micro-USB On-The-Go port and for connecting the phone to HDMI devices. However, a retailer later discovered that Samsung had modified the electronics of the port such that only the adapter made specifically for this model by Samsung could be used. CNET TV torture-tested an S III by cooling it to , placing it in a heat-proof box and heating it to , and submerging it in water—the S III survived all three tests. The phone also did not exhibit any scratches when a key was repeatedly scraped against the display. However, Android Authority later carried out a drop test to compare the S III and the iPhone 5. The screen on the S III shattered on the second drop test, while the iPhone received only minor scuffs and scratches on the metal composite frame after three drop tests. Accessories Accessories for the Galaxy S3 include a wireless charging kit, the Pebble MP3 player, a docking station, a C-Pen, a slimline case, and a car mount. Software and services User interface The S III is powered by Android, a Linux-based, open source mobile operating system developed by Google and introduced commercially in 2008. Among other features, the software allows users to maintain customized home screens which can contain shortcuts to applications and widgets for displaying information. Four shortcuts to frequently used applications can be stored on a dock at the bottom of the screen; the button in the center of the dock opens the application drawer, which displays a menu containing all of the apps installed on the device. A tray accessed by dragging from the top of the screen allows users to view notifications received from other apps, and contains toggle switches for commonly used functions. Pre-loaded apps also provide access to Google's various services. The keyboard software is equipped with a clipboard manager. The S III uses Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz graphical user interface (GUI). The "Nature" version used by the S III has a more "organic" feel than previous versions, and contains more interactive elements such as a water ripple effect on the precluded lock screen, to resemble its appearance in nature. To complement the TouchWiz interface, and as a response to Apple's Siri, the phone introduces S Voice, Samsung's intelligent personal assistant. S Voice can recognize eight languages including English, Korean, Italian and French. Based on Vlingo, S Voice enables the user to verbally control 20 functions such as playing a song, setting the alarm, or activating driving mode; it relies on Wolfram Alpha for online searches. With the Wake-up commands feature, voice commands can be set to launch apps and tasks out of stand-by mode, such as S Voice, camera, music player, voice recorder, missed calls, messages, and schedule. The Auto Haptic feature can complement audio with synchronous haptic feedback. The precluded telephone application is equipped with additional options for noise cancellation, call holding, volume boosting, and the ability to personalize the call sound.'''' Gallery software The new gallery software of the Galaxy S3 allows sorting photos and videos chronologically, by location, and by group. Photos with tagged faces can also be sorted by person. Video player The precluded video player software is newly equipped with the ability to play videos in a floating pop-up that can be moved freely around the screen. In addition, the video player application can show motion thumbnails, which means that the preview thumbnails show a moving portion of the video. Software updates The S III initially shipped with Android version 4.0.4, named "Ice Cream Sandwich", which became commercially available in March 2012 with the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus. Ice Cream Sandwich has a refined user interface, and expanded camera capabilities, security features and connectivity. In mid-June 2012, Google unveiled Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean", which employs Google Now, a voice-assistant similar to S Voice, and incorporates other software changes. Samsung accommodated Jelly Bean in the S III by making last-minute hardware changes to the phone in some markets. Jelly Bean updates began rolling out to S IIIs in selected European countries, and to the T-Mobile in the United States in November 2012. Samsung started pushing Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean to the international version of the S III in December 2012. This update shipped the so-called Premium Suite Upgrade which brought additional features to the Galaxy S3, such as split-screen app view as known from the Galaxy Note 2. In December 2013, Samsung began rolling out Android 4.3 for the S III, adding user interface features backported from the Galaxy S4, and support for the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. In March 2014, Samsung started the rollout of 4.4.2 KitKat for the 2 GB variant of the S III. The Galaxy S III is Samsung's first phone not to get new preloaded ringtones from software updates, a custom that is being continued to date. Services The S III comes with a multitude of pre-installed applications, including Google apps like Google Play, YouTube, Google+, Gmail, Google Maps, Voice Search and Calendar, in addition to Samsung-specific apps such as ChatON, Game Hub, Music Hub, Video Hub, Social Hub and Navigation. To address the fact that iPhone users are reluctant to switch to Android because the OS is not compatible with iTunes, from June 2012 Samsung offered customers of its Galaxy series the Easy Phone Sync app to enable the transfer of music, photos, videos, podcasts, and text messages from an iPhone to a Galaxy device. The user can access Google Play, a digital-distribution multimedia-content service exclusive to Android, to download applications, games, music, movies, books, magazines, and TV programs. Interaction Apart from S Voice, Samsung has directed the bulk of the S III's marketing campaign towards the device's "smart" features, which facilitate improved human-device interactivity. These features include: "Direct Call", the handset's ability to recognize when a user wants to talk to somebody instead of messaging them, if they bring the phone to their head; "Social Tag", a function that identifies and tags people in a photo and shares photos with them, "Smart Alert", a haptic feedback (short vibration) when the device detects being picked up after new notifications have arrived; In addition, the S III can beam its screen to a monitor or be used as a remote controller (AllShare Cast and Play) and share photos with people who are tagged in them (Buddy Photo Share). The device also introduced Music Hub, an online music store powered by 7digital with a catalogue of over 19 million songs. Its "Auto Haptic" feature vibrates synchronously to the audio output for intensification, similarly to the audio-coupled haptic effect, a feature added to stock Android in 2021. Voice over LTE The S III was the first smartphone to support Voice Over LTE with the introduction of HD Voice service in South Korea. The phone enables video calling with its 1.9 MP front-facing camera, and with support for the aptX codec, improves Bluetooth-headset connectivity. Texting on the S III does not embody any new significant features from the S II. Speech-to-text is aided by Vlingo and Google's voice-recognition assistant. Not unlike other Android devices, there is a multitude of third-party typing applications available that could complement the S III's stock keyboard. Enterprise On 18 June 2012, Samsung announced that the S III would have a version with enterprise software under the company's Samsung Approved For Enterprise (SAFE) program, an initiative facilitating the use of its devices for "bring your own device" scenarios in workplace environments. The enterprise S III version would support AES-256 bit encryption, VPN and Mobile Device Management functionality, and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. It was scheduled to be released in the United States in July 2012. The enterprise version was expected to penetrate the business market dominated by Research in Motion's BlackBerry, following the release of similar enterprise versions of the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Tab line of tablet computers. Developer edition A separate "Developer Edition" of the S III was made available from Samsung's Developer Portal. It came with an unlockable bootloader to allow the user to modify the phone's software. == Variants ==

On 19 September 2012, security researchers demonstrated during Pwn2Own, a computer hacking contest held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, that the S III can be hacked via NFC, allowing attackers to download all data from the phone. In December 2012, two hardware issues were reported by users of the S III: A vulnerability of the Exynos SoC allowed malicious apps to gain root privileges even on unrooted devices, and a spontaneous bricking of the unit, called the "sudden death vulnerability", that occurs about six months after activation. Samsung has been replacing the mainboards of affected units under warranty. In January 2013, Samsung released a firmware update that corrected both issues. Affecting both Galaxy S II and III, some units can have high memory use without apparent cause, in itself causing units to be unable to store any more data and making the unit's memory 'full' when apparently not using all of the unit's internal memory available. In October 2012 Samsung noted that this was caused by a mass caching archive running in the background of units' operational tasks. This copied and saved media, tasks, and app information to a background archive which was not accessible to the user without changing and rewriting the phone's operational script. When this has been altered access can be gained and the cache can be deleted and no further caching will occur unless requested. This issue was resolved for the Galaxy S III (and later) model. , two S III explosions were reported. The first involved a man from Ireland, while the more recent incident occurred when a Swiss teenager was left with second and third-degree burns on her thigh caused by her phone's explosion. In October 2013, Samsung acknowledged swelling and overheating issues with the Li-ion batteries in many S III phones, and offered replacement batteries for affected devices. == Reception ==

Commercial reception According to an anonymous Samsung official speaking to the Korea Economic Daily, the S III received more than 9 million pre-orders from 100 carriers during the two weeks following its London unveiling, making it the fastest-selling gadget in history. In comparison, the iPhone 4S received 4 million pre-orders prior to its launch, while Samsung's previous flagship phone, the S II, had 10 million handsets shipped within five months. Within a month of the London unveiling, auction and shopping website eBay noted a 119-percent increase in second-hand Android phone sales. According to an eBay spokesperson, this was "the first time anything other than an Apple product has sparked such a selling frenzy." ImageSize= width:290 height:420 PlotArea= left:35 right:0 bottom:5 top:10 DateFormat= DD/MM/YYYY # European date format Period= from:01/01/2012 till:01/04/2013 TimeAxis= orientation:vertical ScaleMajor= unit:month increment:1 start:01/01/2012 ScaleMinor= unit:month increment:1 start:01/01/2012 PlotData= Color:yellow mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:8 shift:(0,-3) # shift text to right side of bar # there is no automatic collision detection, fontsize:S # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap shift:(25,-10) at:05/03/2012 shift:11,-4 text: 5 Mar. – Existence of S II successor confirmed at:03/05/2012 shift:11,-4 text: 3 May – Unveiling of S III in London at:29/05/2012 shift:11,-8 text: 29 May – Release of S III in 28 countries at:05/06/2012 shift:11,-1 text: 5 Jun. – Apple files for an injunction against the S III at:20/06/2012 shift:11,-4 text: 20 Jun. – Release of S III in North America at:22/07/2012 shift:11,-4 text: 22 Jul. – 10 million S IIIs sold at:31/08/2012 shift:11,-6 text: 31 Aug. – Apple files lawsuit against the S III at:06/09/2012 shift:11,0 text: 6 Sep. – 20 million S IIIs sold at:02/11/2012 shift:11,-4 text: 2 Nov. – 30 million S IIIs sold at:14/01/2013 shift:11,-4 text: 14 Jan. – 40 million S IIIs sold at:14/03/2013 shift:11,-4 text: 14 Mar. - 50 million S IIIs sold The S III was released in 28 countries in Europe and the Middle East on 29 May 2012. To showcase its flagship device, Samsung afterwards embarked on a global month-long tour of the S III to nine cities, including Sydney, New Delhi, and cities in China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. The S III has helped Samsung consolidate its market share in several countries including India, where Samsung expected to capture 60 percent of the country's smartphone market, improving on its previous 46 percent. Within a month of release, Samsung had a 60-percent market share in France, while the company controlled over 50 percent of the German and Italian smartphone markets. Over a similar period the S III helped increase Samsung's market share in the United Kingdom to over 40 percent, while eroding the iPhone 4S's 25 percent to 20 percent in the country. The S III was scheduled to be released in North America on 20 June 2012, but because of high demand, some US and Canadian carriers delayed the release by several days, while some other carriers limited the market at launch. The S III's US launch event took place in New York City, hosted by Twilight actress Ashley Greene and attended by dubstep artist Skrillex, who performed at Skylight Studios. Samsung estimated that by the end of July 2012, the S III would have been released by 296 carriers in 145 countries, Shin Jong-kyun, president of Samsung's mobile communications sector, announced on 22 July that sales had exceeded 10 million. According to an assessment by Swiss financial services company UBS, Samsung had shipped 5–6 million units of the phone in the second quarter of 2012 and would ship 10–12 million handsets per quarter throughout the rest of the year. An even more aggressive prediction by Paris-based banking group BNP Paribas said 15 million units will be shipped in the third quarter of 2012, while Japanese financial consultant company Nomura placed the figure for this quarter as high as 18 million. Sales of the S III were estimated to top 40 million by the end of the year. To meet demand, Samsung had hired 75,000 workers, and its South Korean factory was running at its peak capacity of 5 million smartphone units per month. On 6 September 2012, Samsung revealed that sales of the S III had reached 20 million in 100 days, making it three and six times faster-selling than the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy S, respectively. Europe accounted for more than 25 percent of this figure with 6 million units, followed by Asia (4.5 million) and the US (4 million); sales in South Korea, the S III's home market, numbered 2.5 million. Around the same time of Samsung's announcement, sales of the S III surpassed that of the iPhone 4S in the US. In the third quarter of 2012, more than 18 million S III units were shipped, making it the most popular smartphone at the time, ahead of the iPhone 4S's 16.2 million units. Analysts deduced that the slump in iPhone sales was due to customers' anticipation of the iPhone 5. By May 2014, the S III had sold approximately 60 million units since its 2012 release. In April 2015, the total sales number was reported as 70 million. Critical reception The reception of the S III has been particularly positive. Critics noted the phone's blend of features, such as its S Voice application, display, processing speed, and dimensions as having an edge over its competition, the Apple iPhone 4S and HTC One X. while Natasha Lomas of CNET UK lauded the phone's "impossibly slim and light casing and a quad-core engine", calling it the "Ferrari of Android phones", Gareth Beavis of TechRadar described the S III as "all about faster, smarter and being more minimal than ever before while keeping the spec list at the bleeding edge of technology." Matt Warman of The Daily Telegraph said, "On spending just a short time with the S3, I'm confident in saying that it's a worthy successor to the globally popular S2". Upon release, a number of critics and publications have made references to the S III, Samsung's 2012 flagship phone, as an "iPhone killer", responding perhaps to Apple's favourable customer perception. The label owes itself to the S III's use of the Android OS—the chief rival of Apple's iOS—as well as its design and features that rival the iPhone 4S such as Smart Stay, a large display, a quad-core processor, Android customizability, and a multitude of connectivity options. The S III was the first Android phone to have a higher launch price than the iPhone 4S when the Apple product was released in 2011. With the S III, Tim Weber, business editor of the BBC, observed, "With the new Galaxy S3 they [Samsung] have clearly managed to move to the front of the smartphone field, ahead of mighty Apple itself." and having a "slippery feel". Another usage problem was a microphone malfunction that resulted in difficulty communicating during a call. Reviewers have noted the somewhat abrupt auto-adjustment of display brightness, which tends to under-illuminate the screen; however, it has twice the battery life compared to the HTC handset, achieved partly through the dim display. Others say the numerous pre-installed apps make the S III feel "bloated". In late-September 2012 TechRadar ranked it as the No. 1 handset in its constantly updated list of the 20 best mobile phones; In February 2013, the S III won the "Best Smartphone" award from the GSMA at Mobile World Congress. == Litigation ==

On 5 June 2012, Apple filed for preliminary injunctions in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Samsung Electronics, claiming the S III had violated at least two of the company's patents. Apple requested that the court include the phone in its existing legal battle against Samsung, and ban sales of the S III before its scheduled 21 June 2012 US launch. Apple claimed the alleged infringements would "cause immediate and irreparable harm" to its commercial interest. On 11 June, Judge Lucy Koh said that Apple's claim would overload her work schedule, as she would also be overseeing the trial of Samsung's other devices; consequently, Apple dropped its request to block 21 June release of the S III. In mid-July 2012, Samsung removed the universal search feature on Sprint and AT&T S III phones with over-the-air (OTA) software updates to disable the local search function as a "precautionary measure" before its patent court trial with Apple, which began on 30 July 2012. Although Apple won the trial, the S III experienced a sales spike because of the public's belief that the phone would be banned. On 31 August 2012, Apple asked the same federal court to add the S III into its existing complaint, believing the device has violated its patents. Samsung countered with the statement: "Apple continues to resort to litigation over market competition in an effort to limit consumer choice." == See also ==