Samsung at MWC: No Galaxy S III, Maybe Tablets and Tizen

Samsung confirmed to TechRadar last night that the company will not introduce the successor to its Galaxy S II smartphones at Mobile World Congress on Feb. 27, but rumors swirl about a new tablet and a major new OS move from the company.

"Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012. The successor to the Galaxy S2 smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product," the phone maker told the U.K.-based tech site.

The Galaxy S II (slideshow below) is one of the world's most popular smartphone lines, available on Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T here in the states. The AT&T, T-Mobile, and unlocked versions all won PCMag Editors' Choice awards.

With the Galaxy S III off the table, I've been hearing about a few other possible directions for Samsung to go in at the world's largest mobile trade show.

One is Tizen. Samsung used MWC 2010 to introduce Bada, a proprietary OS that the company uses on some smartphones outside the United States. The company has been looking at merging Bada with Tizen, a Linux-based OS that's the successor to Intel and Nokia's Meego platform, The Register reported earlier this month.

A Tizen announcement also opens up the possibility for Samsung to show an Intel-powered tablet at MWC, as Intel's Mark Miller told me at CES last month that Intel was looking to showcase Tizen-based tablet devices sometime soon.

Speaking of tablets, Samsung has a 2Ghz Exynos 5250 processor on deck that's practically begging to be put into a tablet. Several rumors have been bouncing around the Net that this chip will end up in some huge, dinner-plate-like Galaxy Tab tablet, possibly with an 11.6-inch screen size.

These announcements: Tizen devices, an Intel tablet, and a gigantic Galaxy Tab probably won't rock the global market as much as the stunningly successful Galaxy S phone line has. But they'll make for an entertaining show, and this may not be all that Samsung has up its sleeve.

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About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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