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View Full Version : Samsung Has NOT Dropped Smartphone Plans


Robert Levy
07-24-2003, 09:19 PM
Reuters picked up the news of the Chi Mei/Motorola Smartphone which was unleashed on the web by Smartphone Thoughts and Modaco yesterday. It's a decent article (http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=3150171) with the exception of the second to last line: "Third-placed Samsung Electronics from South Korea announced Microsoft handsets, but pulled prototypes earlier this year after taking a stake in Symbian." This is simply not true and unfortunately the Reuters story is now being reproduced (http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-5053475.html?tag=fd_top) by dozens of mainstream news sources in its entirety.

Word of Samsung dropping the Smartphone platform came about a few months ago when another Smartphone enthusiast site invented the story and presented it as news. :roll: From there, the rumor quickly spread around the web and to several mainstream news sources.

This prompted Microsoft and Samsung to release a joint statement to the press saying that the two are continuing to work together and have a postive relationship. After that statement, the rumor pretty much stopped being circulated. However, this Reuters record brings it back up again so I want to set the record straight: Samsung has NOT dropped their Smartphone plans.

Their i600 clamshell Smartphone was on display at Tech Ed in Dallas earlier this summer and almost all who played with it (myself included) had positive comments. We remain in close contact with representatives of Samsung and will let you know if anything changes but for now, they are well on their way to getting a CDMA Smartphone released in North America.

HailStorm
07-25-2003, 02:03 AM
Thanks for the reassurance Robert, now I can send all my friends over here to read your post as the inevitable crush of emails come in after they read that Reuters article.

Doh!

FWIW...I keep bugging my local Verizon Wireless Plus store and they are still telling me late August, early September for the i600. This is the first time they are consistently giving me the same date range over a two/three week period of time. :D

sebset
07-25-2003, 05:21 AM
More than 1 year after we saw it for the first time, perhaps the Samsung i600 will finally come...

How is it possible? I think Samsung is rather to sell a different product which will include SP2003 and Bluetooth. Just my thought... :wink:


The following video was made on 2002-08-11 and she is showing the i600 in action.
http://www.anycall.com:8082/upload/i_world/i_display/avi/3327_i600.WMV





bye
Sebset