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So it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S5 may make an appearance at MWC 2014 after all - but why? Samsung, do you have something to hide?


If Samsung was looking to get the maximum publicity for its marketing buck it would stick to the standalone launch event which served it so well for the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4.

These events managed to generate almost Apple levels of hysteria and excitement - a buzz many manufacturers can only dream of, and one which should be carefully preserved, not thrown into a melee of announcements at MWC.

Im not saying people will ignore the Galaxy S5 if it does arrive in Barcelona, everyone (myself included) will still cover it with the same vigor as previous Galaxy S launches as its going to be one of the big phones of the year, no matter what turns up - but Ill be doing it in the middle of covering announcements from a multitude of other manufacturers.

All part of the plan

Samsung is going to lose out on coverage compared to previous years - theres no two ways about it.
But perhaps thats exactly what its trying to do. Maybe Samsung has finally run out of ideas on how to reinvent the wheel on an annual basis and is fearing a backlash as it unveils a handset which boasts only minor improvements over the Galaxy S4.
 
People were not overly excited by the Galaxy S4, which brought a slightly updated design and new eye, face and hand tracking tech - branded a gimmick by some.

Taking a look at the Galaxy S5 rumors there doesnt seem to be a great deal to get properly excited about.

A higher resolution display is hardly going to blow us away, a 16MP camera still pales in comparison to the 20.7MP Xperia Z1 and 41MP Lumia 1020 and Samsung will be late to the fingerprint scanning tech with the iPhone 5S and HTC One Max beating it to the punch.

With less of a focus put on the Galaxy S5, there will be less analysis of its flaws as media outlets attempt to churn through all the new products at MWC - leading to coverage of the sentient points, which realistically, is all the consumer needs anyway.

While this earlier-than-expected launch would see Samsung get its handset out the door before HTC - the Taiwanese firm may have the upper hand with its own event in March, allowing the HTC One Two to garner a lot more interest, especially if it can get the phone on shop shelves within a fortnight of announcement.

And what about the design? Is Samsung finally admitting it might not be that desirable? Its still thought that the South Korean brand will stick with the tried and tested plastic chassis for the Galaxy S5, but consumers now have a taste for the finer things in life.

The metal clad HTC One and One Mini join the iPhone 5S and Xperia Z1 in terms of premium look and feel - something that Samsungs handsets have always lacked, and its falling further behind.

And the winner is...

This is great news for MWC. After a drab CES 2014 the relevance of trade shows was called into question, so having the Galaxy S5 showing up in Barcelona would be a massive coup for MWC - which may boast two major phone launches with the Sony Xperia Z2 also tipped for an appearance.

Weve also got some decent tier two phones in the shape of the Nokia X Android phone and the LG G2 Pro - they might not be big hitters, but will certainly garner some decent coverage.

That potentially spells more trouble for Samsung as the Galaxy S5 will be going head to head with one of its biggest rivals almost immediately.

Get the Galaxy S5 wrong and it could be over before its even hit stores, if critical acclaim is showered on Sony with Samsungs offering failing to impress - OK, thats a bit of a stretch as marketing also plays a huge part, but its not a fight anyone should want to pick.

Sure, the Galaxy S5 will be powerful and brimming with the latest tech - but I fear it will also be underwhelming, and Samsung knows it.

For more than two decades, ever since DOS and Windows 3.1x, dual-booting has been restricted to hardcore enthusiasts who found being able to boot from one or more operating systems convenient and useful.


If the presentation by Microsofts Joe Belfiore last week in Barcelona is an indication of how the mobile market will evolve, were about to see a comeback of dual booting with Android and Windows Phone sitting on the same phone.

The push is likely to come from Microsoft for whom this might be one of the biggest punts of its long history, similar to putting Internet Explorer into Windows 95.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

The gist of the later part of Belfiores presentation is that Microsoft is working closely with hardware partners to make sure that there is little or no change needed to get a smartphone (or indeed any ARM-based devices) to run Windows Phone or Android.

X86 devices like PCs, laptops and servers run Windows or Linux (or indeed MacOS X) indiscriminately and theres no reason why that shouldnt be the case for smartphones in general.

This is a logical step that is likely to be more helpful to Microsoft than Android - and this tacit agreement will end up being most detrimental to Apple.

How bold is too bold?

It seems likely that Microsoft may encourage partners to offer dual-boot as standard on all Android smartphones by offering Windows Phone for free or for a huge discount.

The cynical among us might suggest that as well as offering Windows Phone for free (or at a low cost), Microsoft will slash the fees associated with cross licensing agreements signed with scores of manufacturers of Android devices to persuade them to put Windows Phone prominently on the Android phone (perhaps on the boot screen).

Either solution will cost money but would enable Microsoft to get Windows into the hands of potentially tens of millions of Android users.

It will hope that they will try Windows Phone and be so enamoured of it that they eventually switch to a solely Windows Phone device or continue to use the two platforms altogether.

This would help Microsoft expand the number of smartphones running Windows Phone exponentially and we might even see Microsoft-backed versions of Android without Googles services (similar to what Nokia is doing), something which would be something of an ironic move.

As always though, the more competition in a market, the more likely innovation will thrive.

The business allure of dual-booting

So whats the point of dual-booting for consumers? Most end-users and consumers are unlikely to gain much from the exercise, depending on how dual-booting devices are pitched to the mainstream.

But there is a category of users for whom this will be a godsend and that is the business/enterprise audience.
Having Windows 8 Embedded or Windows Phone 8 plus Android on a sleek smartphone that can be used both for work and leisure will be an attractive proposal to some.

Microsofts mobile platform offers easy access to Office 365, Active Directory and the entire Windows ecosystem (including Xbox) and is an incredibly attractive alternative to BlackBerry.

Thats the theory many think Redmond will follow because the other option is to see Windows Phone stuck as the third choice after Android and iOS, and seeing numbers of shipped (but not sold) units increase over time.

Piggy-backing on Googles Android is definitely not an ego-boosting move for Microsoft but it is by far the most pragmatic.

It is also one that can yield great results reasonably quickly, which is what Satya Nadella needs at the moment to stamp his authority on the company.