Samsung Galaxy Note 2 : To Be Announced on August 29, 2012 in Berlin! Confirmed!

Last month, in an interview with UK tech website Computing regarding the fate of some key players in today's handset industry, former Apple executive Jean-Louise Gassee was quoted saying, "Samsung takes no prisoners. They don't brush their teeth in the morning; They file them."

I completely agree. And for me, the existence of the company's Android smartphone-tablet hybrid, Samsung Galaxy Note, is one clear testament to that.

Announced in the same month as Apple iPhone 4S in 2011 (as if to show the Cupertino company that Koreans can match and even surpass whatever it is they can conjure), Samsung Galaxy Note - with its massive 5.3-inch HD SuperAMOLED screen, capacitive screen stylus, dual-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 Exynos 4210 chipset CPU, and 2500 mAh battery - pushed the boundaries of what's possible for a smartphone both in terms of size and power.

But for all of the product's grandeur, it was laden with risks. If you remember, a similar device released more than a year before Note, the Dell Streak phablet with a 5-inch screen, came short of becoming a huge hit amongst consumers. I'm sure Samsung knew from the start that there will always be users who'd say that their new device is 'too big a phone, too small a tablet' and that tech websites and blogs might deem it 'confused.' But they forged on, nonetheless.

And thankfully for them, their big risk paid off. Last June 2012, Samsung reported that it has sold a whopping 7 million units of Samsung Galaxy Note - on top of 28 Million units of Samsung Galaxy S2 released earlier in 2012, helping catapult the brand to 'top smartphone maker' status -- finally edging out Apple.

It was a landmark achievement. But Samsung is far from done. Following the release of its 2012 flagship smartphone - the Samsung Galaxy S3 - last May, the follow-up to Samsung Galaxy Note, which some are already calling Samsung Galaxy Note 2, is already set to be announced by the end of this month.


A Samsung spokesperson recently confirmed to the media that the company will indeed announce the next Galaxy Note at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event happening in Berlin, Germany on August 29, 2012 -- just two days prior the start of IFA, Europe's biggest trade fair for consumer electronics and appliances.

He made no mention of the new phablet's design nor specifications but various tech sites are already expecting the device to have a 5.5-inch display - bigger by 0.2 inch than that of the first generation Note, an unbreakable plane touchscreen, 1.6 GHz Exynos 4 Quad chip, 2GB of RAM and an even bigger battery.

Now, interestingly, according to some industry insiders, Apple is also currently preparing to formally announce the iPhone 5, the latest iteration to its popular smartphone line, on September 12, 2012 -- that's just around 2 weeks after Samsung unveils the next Note. This means that we could have a rerun of what happened last year when iPhone had to contend against two flagship releases from the Korean giant; A phablet introduced almost within the same month and a regular smartphone that's been around for a while.

That strategy worked well for Samsung last year and I guess they're betting their cards on it again in 2012. Samsung Galaxy S3 appears to be doing well in the market - so it's already doing its part. The question is, will Samsung Galaxy Note 2 be good enough to complete the winning rerun? That, we'll know for sure in a few weeks. - TP Founder Notes # 11, 'Of Taking Risks'

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