Samsung, the world's second largest maker of mobile phones, threw its weight behind Google's nascent Android platform today and unveiled the first handset capable of recording high-definition video.
The South Korean manufacturer today announced four new touchscreen phones for the Australian market under a new range dubbed "Icon".
The Google-powered model, the Samsung Galaxy, will go on sale in September. It features a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 8GB of built-in memory, Wi-Fi, a 5-megapixel camera and easy access to a suite of Google online applications including Gmail, Google search, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Talk and YouTube.
As with the BlackBerry and iPhone platforms, Google phone users can expand the functionality of the device by installing applications from the "Android Market" - similar to the iTunes App Store.
Tyler McGee, Samsung Australia's VP of mobiles, said he believed Android would be "one of the key platforms that we'll continue to develop".
"People are becoming far more aware of Android and more importantly the Android Market," he said.
The Galaxy will be the third Google phone to hit the Australian market. The first, the HTC Dream, went on sale in February, while the sleeker HTC Magic hit the market this month.
Mark Novosel, telecommunications analyst at IDC, would not reveal exact sales numbers for the Dream but said "it would be fair to say that it performed below expectations".
He said the device itself wasn't as attractive as other models on the market and the pricing plans offered by the exclusive carrier, Optus, were prohibitively expensive.
Novosel said he believed the Android platform would gain more of a foothold with Samsung's entry into the market as he believed consumers were waiting for more Google phone options.
"People are still waiting for the bugs to be ironed out on the platform ... because it's not just a new device, it's a whole new platform we're talking about," he said.
Also available in September, the Samsung HD includes an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording videos at the high-definition resolution of 1280x720. The Symbian phone, which includes a built-in FM radio, GPS, compass and up to 16GB of internal memory, can be connected to a TV set for watching recordings on a big HD screen.
The other two handsets Samsung unveiled today were the Samsung Preston and the Samsung OMNIA, both available in August. The Preston is a mass-market device with a 2.8-inch screen, 3-megapixel camera and FM radio, while the Omnia is an all-in-one multimedia phone that uses the Windows Mobile operating system.
McGee could not reveal prices, saying Samsung was still in discussions with carriers.
Overseas, Samsung also unveiled its first commercially available solar-powered handset, the E1107, which generates between five and ten minutes of talk time from every hour in the sun. McGee said the company was now evaluating whether to launch it in Australia.
