Samsung Galaxy S III: The Cutting Edge of the Smartphone Market
In the years since Apple unveiled the original iPhone, there have been plenty of companies that have tried their hand at making Android-powered smartphones. Whether they were setting out to make a real iPhone killer – like Palm with their Palm Pre – or just trying to carve out their own little chunk of the lucrative smartphone market, these companies have met with widely varied success. In fact, most of them have met with some level of failure. Companies like HTC, Motorola, Nokia, and others have all tried and largely failed to make money in the smartphone market.
In fact, five years after the launch of the original iPhone, two companies have laid claim to roughly 90% of the smartphone market’s profits: Apple and Samsung. While numerous companies have challenged the iPhone and often failed – sometimes quite dismally – Samsung has consistently put out phones that rival the best Apple has to offer. This year, they released the much-anticipated Galaxy S III. The successor to the extremely popular Galaxy S II, this newest entry into the Galaxy line of smartphones has proven extremely popular with Android fans. Moreover, the Galaxy S III has drawn many people away from other smartphone platforms – like Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and especially the iPhone.
So, just what is it that makes the Samsung Galaxy S III so grand? Read on for a review of some of its best features.
Android
Finally, the Galaxy S III is powered by the Android operating system. Though in its early days Android was clearly a distant second to Apple’s iOS platform, Google’s operating system has grown a lot over the last few years, to the point that it is in many respects a vastly superior platform. Samsung, Google’s chosen manufacturing partner for their flagship Galaxy Nexus, has designed the Galaxy S III to take full advantage of all the features and capabilities the Android platform has to offer.
For the moment, the Galaxy S III is still shipping with last year’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – which is something many Android-powered smartphones still don’t have. If you were holding out for the newest version, Jelly Bean, though, have no fear: the update will be rolling out to the Galaxy S III very soon.
Specs
While some may say that operating system – iOS versus Android versus Windows – may be the biggest piece of the smartphone puzzle, the fact is that any smartphone is really only as good as its hardware. Your OS may have all sorts of awesome features and capabilities, but if your phone’s hardware isn’t up to snuff, you won’t be able to take advantage of them.
 Fortunately, the Samsung Galaxy S III has just about the best hardware configuration you could want. It features a full gigabyte of RAM, as well as 16, 32, or 64 GB of on-board storage available, depending on which model you get. Additionally, like most smartphones these days (except, of course, the iPhone) it also includes a built-in SD card of storage space to your phone.
