On Thursday, April 11, we popped into Pepcom's DigitalFocus event in New York City and had a chance to speak with representatives from a wide array of companies.
We were able to check out some new devices, like the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and even got our hands on "the next big thing," the Samsung Galaxy S4, which seems to be about as cool and slick as you've heard.
Nick Badger, a public relations specialist for Samsung, was kind enough to give us a bit of his time and tell us everything we wanted to know about how Samsung is preparing to roll out the Galaxy S4 and what we have to look forward to when it does.
iTech Post: Samsung has been notably engaged in some rather unique marketing strategies for the Galaxy S4, not to mention the outright glut of all of the promotions. Do you feel the unveiling of the S4 in Times Square last month lived up to the hype?
Nick Badger: Our event illustrated the features of the phone in a different way that hasn't been done before.
iTech Post: What were your thoughts about LG's attempt to pre-empt the proceedings with counter-marketing? Was this just LG running scared?
NB: I really don't know what their thought process was on that. I can only speak to what we do.
iTech Post: Are we going to see any more of the "Jeremy" teaser trailers?
NB: That was for our global impact which announced our Unpacked event, so I don't think that's going to happen for the product marketing.
iTech Post: I've seen the new commercials Samsung has just put out there. Are we going to see any more of these soon?
NB: Those are global commercials and I'm a U.S. representative, so I don't know too much about what's behind those.
iTech Post: Do you believe that Android updates will come pretty quickly, especially in light of the forthcoming Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie?
NB: We try and support our flagship products for the entire life of the phone and we try to make sure they get the best Android updates possible as soon as we can get them ready.
iTech Post: What kind of estimates can you discuss as regards price points for the S4?
NB: We haven't announced any pricing or availability for the S4 from Samsung's perspective, so we can't really tell you that right now.
iTech Post: What are the features of the Galaxy S4 that you're particularly excited about?
NB: With the S4, it's our first phone with an IR blaster, so you can use our Watch-On app to change the channel and select programming. We also have our Air View capabilities which we introduced on the Note 2 and Note 10.1, where you hover over an email or a photo to see a preview of it. We also have our Multi Window capability that we had in the Note 2 and the Note 10.1 and now the Note 8.0. Now it's in the Galaxy S4, where you can have two apps running at the same time, copy and paste from your maps to your email or have Twitter and Facebook open at the same time. All that's done with the powerful quadcore processor or the octacore processor, depending on what variant you have.
iTech Post: Which reminds me, can you talk a bit about how that's going to work, where there will be two Galaxy S4 variants when it comes to the processors?
NB: Yeah, we have two different processors: a 1.6 GHz Exynos octacore processor and 1.9 quadcore Snapdragon processor. And that just varies by region.
iTech Post: How do they compare?
NB: As far as speed, this phone can do anything you need it to do.
iTech Post: But as far as the two processors are concerned, will there be any difference at all?
NB: No consumer is going to notice the difference between the two variants.
iTech Post: Do you think this is something that will be updated at some point where all of them will have the Snapdragon processor?
NB: I can't speak on that.
iTech Post: As far as color variants are concerned, is this something you can talk about?
NB: Right now it comes in Black Mist and White Frost. And that's all we know at the moment.
iTech Post: With all the products, like the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3, that you guys have coming out soon, is Samsung concerned at all about splitting its own market?
NB: Samsung takes pride in the fact that we offer choice for our consumers. We have our Galaxy Note series, which has the S-Pen for people who want to use the capability. Then we also have our Galaxy S series, which is a little bit smaller and is just everybody's phone.
iTech Post: Anything else you may want to add, Nick?
NB: Nah, I mean the S4 is a great new product and it's going to be able to do anything moms, dads and grads want.
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