Samsung Preps New Handsets for a June 15 Launch

It seems that the South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung is determined to unveil a series of new products this month, on June 15 to be more precise, according to an announcement that the company made through its Samsung Unpacked website, which might turn out to be new smartphones and multimedia handsets.

The company intends to hold an event on that day in three different locations, namely London, Dubai and Singapore, and started sending invitations to all the media for this press event. The new smartphone lineup, the company says, will sport various operating platforms and will be coupled with new multimedia phones and applications.

These are the only details that Samsung has unveiled so far, yet it seems that more info will become available on its website as soon as June 5, along with some early specs on said devices. One more thing that should be added here is that those living in London, Dubai or Singapore can participate at the “Samsung Unpacked” competition, which could bring them a $5000 prize.

“Sealed within a multi-layered box, the top-secret new Samsung Mobile phone will be passed between people. Each day, one person will be selected to unpack a layer of the box, winning the new Samsung Mobile phone in the process. The box will then be passed on to the next person, and so on – until 15 June, when one lucky person will reveal the phone to the world at the Samsung Unpacked launch event. Along the way, someone will also win the $5,000 grand prize.”

In related news, we learn that the company, which is at the moment the second largest mobile phone maker in the world, plans to expand the production of its low and mid-end handsets, so as to be able to catch up with Nokia, the leader on the market. According to Telecoms Korea, the company plans to reduce phone production in its home country, due to leveraged manufacturing costs, and to enhance it in countries like China, India and Vietnam, where the costs are lower.

According to the news, Samsung would reduce the production in Korea to only 23 percent of the total. Back in 2008, Samsung's Gumi plant in Korea manufactured 34 percent of the total number of handsets the company produced, a much lower percentage than the 74 percent it used to produce in 2005, but higher than the number of phones it will make in the future.