New York –
Samsung will add a pair of Galaxy-brand portable media players (PMPs) to its
selection of Galaxy tablets and smartphones, the company announced here at a
press conference.
The Wi-Fi-equipped
Galaxy players are expected to be available in early May, said Tim Baxter,
president of Samsung’s consumer business division. Pricing hasn’t been set.
Both models,
one with 4-inch screen and one with 5-inch screen, feature GPS and are
therefore certified to download apps from Google’s Android Market, Baxter
noted. Both models were shown at January’s International CES, but at the time,
Samsung said it wasn’t sure whether it would bring them to the U.S.
By expanding
the Galaxy franchise from tablets and smartphones to PMPs, Baxter said, Galaxy
will tap new user segments. For kids who don’t need a smartphone with an expensive data plan, the Galaxy players
will complement a basic cellphone. The players are also targeted to consumers
who will mainly consume media, browse the web, play games, and participate in
video or VoIP chats, while the larger screens of the Galaxy tablets will appeal
to users who want to consume media but whose priorities are email and other
productivity applications.
Both models
feature Android 2.2 (Froyo) OS and are upgradable to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).
Both also feature Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and DLNA certification, enabling them to stream
content to and from a DLNA PC via Wi-Fi and to DLNA TVs. Also common to both
are Adobe Flash 10.1, front VGA camera, 3.2-megapixel rear-facing cameras, QiK video calling apps, WVGA displays, HD
video storage, 8GB of embedded memory, 32GB MicroSD slot, microphone and stereo
speakers with virtual 5.1 sound. The 4-inch model adds Skype VoIP for voice. The
5-inch model adds TFT-LCD display and camera flash.
Both players
support numerous multimedia formats natively. Video formats are DivX, Xvid,
WMV, MPEG-4 and H.264. Music formats are MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, and FLAC.
Content can be
dragged and dropped from a PC onto the player without installing special
software on the PC.
