Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled new phones running the mobile operating systems of Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. as it seeks to defend its lead over Apple Inc.amid patent disputes with the iPhone maker.
The new version of the pen-equipped Galaxy Note smartphone has a 5.5-inch screen, larger than its predecessor, and runs the latest version of Google’s Android operating system. The device is loaded with software that recognizes handwriting from a digital pen.
“The Note has evolved from every smartphone that we have launched,” Min Cho, a senior manager for Samsung’s mobile unit, said in an interview at the IFA consumer-electronics fair in Berlin yesterday. “We can address more consumers and more market opportunities because we can provide the capability of smartphones and tablets at the same time.”
Samsung, the world’s top smartphone seller, is offering a variety of Galaxy handsets, with different sizes and features, to attract consumers from narrower choices offered by Apple. The new Galaxy Note may also help to cushion the impact of a potential U.S. sales ban on some of Samsung’s other smartphones. Apple won more than $1 billion in damages Aug. 24 after a jury found the Suwon, South Korea-based company infringed six of seven patents at stake in the trial.
Windows Phone
Samsung also showed a new handset yesterday that runs Microsoft’s new Windows 8 mobile system, the Ativ S with a 4.8- inch screen. The phone puts Samsung in competition with Nokia Oyj, which decided to team up with Microsoft in the smartphone market last year. Nokia is set to unveil its own smartphones that use the new Windows 8 software on September 5…
