It’s been a wild day in the mobile computing space as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Motorola competed for the attention and mindshare of the channel.
Samsung introduced a stripped down Galaxy S4 smartphone targeted for the mid-market. There is a lot of activity in the mid-market as BlackBerry also released a new smartphone running BB10 called Q5 built specifically for the mid-tier market.
Called the Galaxy S4 Mini, it will feature a 4.3-inch screen and an 8 mega-pixel rear-facing camera, which is smaller than the 5-inch S4 and it could be just the start of many other S4 styled form factors.
Samsung’s South Korean competitor LG Electronics also unveiled a smartphone today in partnership with Google called the Nexus 4 White.
Nexus 4 White runs Android and will feature Google Now and Photosphere.
It also comes with 4.7-inch 1280-by-768 True HD IPS Plus display supported by Zerogap Touch technology. You will notice that this smartphone sits between the S4 and the stripped down S4 Mini. Built in Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 2 GB of RAM is also part of the Nexus 4. LG is targeting select markets in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East over the next several weeks.
As for Motorola they followed in the footsteps of Lenovo and decided to make technology products in the U.S. The only difference is the Motorola will be manufacturing smartphone at its Texas facility, while Lenovo will be making all types of computer products except for a smartphone.
This might spark a buy domestic campaign that became popular with the U.S. automakers in the 80s. This move is part of Motorola’s comeback attempt in the mobile marketplace and the company believes that building products in the U.S. will help them be more competitive.
Motorola, which Google acquired for $12.5 billion last year, has been battling Apple, Samsung, BlackBerry and Android providers and they hopes its new Moto X device will get them back in the game.