Nine Million Pre-Orders For Samsung Galaxy S III

Samsung has reportedly secured nine million pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S III, its newest flagship smartphone.

The smartphone is due to be released at the end of the month and will compete directly with its Apple rival, the iPhone 4S.

Promising signs

The Korean Economic Daily cited an unnamed Samsung official as the source of the figure, who also revealed that its Korean factory was operating at full capacity, producing five million units a month, according to a Reuters report.

Samsung recently said it expected the new smartphone to “substantially contribute” to its second quarter earnings and will hope it can replicate the success of its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S II, which sold more than 10 million units worldwide and contributed to Samsung breaking its own sales records in 2011.

The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy S III boasts a 4.8-inch AMOLED screen, support for 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks in markets that that have them, facial recognition technology and a Siri equivalent. All the major UK networks plan to support the device.

The phone also supports contactless payments using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and a special edition of the device is to be the official phone of this summer’s Olympic Games, allowing athletes to make use of Visa’s Paywave system.

Samsung launched the most recent Google-branded smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, last November and unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 at Mobile World Congress in February.

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