Samsung Says ChatON Launched Globally, Almost

Just one day after it filed preliminary injunction motions in Japan and Australia, requesting the courts to stop the sale of Apple’s iPhone4S in both countries, Samsung announced the global availability of its free-to-download mobile communication service, ChatON. The service was originally launched for limited consumption in September, this year.

Connect anywhere on any phone

According to the company, ChatON provides users with a simple way to keep in touch with friends and family anywhere in the world, regardless of device platform. It enables users to communicate in multiple ways, allowing multimedia content and animated messages, as well as more conventional instant messages, to be shared with friends and family.

“Using ChatON’s unique functionality, users can create their own animated message by hand-writing text, adding audio, and choosing their background picture. Additionally, each conversation window features a Trunk, keeping a running record of all multimedia items sent and received through the conversation,” Samsung claimed in a statement.

Senior vice president of Media Solution Center, Kang Min Lee added, “After launching in September, ChatON enjoyed a positive response at IFA 2011. Many of the visitors to our booth were excited to experience ChatON and responded very positively while using it. Through its multi-platform and global availability, ChatON heralds a new age of mobile communication.”

Despite claims, however, some Canadian users, commenting online, say that the service has not been made available to them and, while Samsung states that the service is available for any Web-enabled mobile phone, it is currently only available for Android phones, with apps for iPhone, BlackBerry and Bada phones “coming soon”.

ChatON will, however, come preloaded on Bada smart-phones and selected Samsung phones, starting this month. ChatON can be downloaded from Samsung Apps or the Android Market.