Lest there was any doubt about how seriously Samsung is taking the 10th anniversary of its Galaxy Android smartphone line, the company has today issued a press release celebrating its takeover of central Paris with large billboards promising the next stage of its evolution will be shown off on February 20th. The Korean company is celebrating its national heritage by printing out two designs in its native alphabet, Hangul, with one of them reading “the future unfolds” and the other simply stating “February 20th.” So, aside from the already expected Galaxy S10 launch in a month’s time, the Galaxy Unpacked event scheduled for February 20th seems like it’ll give us more of the foldable tablet-phone hybrid that Samsung teased at the end of last year.
This marketing effort, a full month and a week ahead of the actual event, is as much a declaration of intent as it is a reminder of Samsung’s gargantuan reach and resources. The most exciting developments in the smartphone realm over the past couple of years haven’t really involved Samsung much — Google upended expectations from mobile cameras with the Pixel, Apple perfected the gesture-based user interface, and Chinese rivals like Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo have been first to new technologies like in-display fingerprint readers.
Samsung, which hasn’t made any great leaps forward since 2016’s Galaxy S7, will be hoping to recapture its reputation as a technological leader with the new S10 and the foldable device that has captured so many people’s imagination and anticipation.
