In yet another first, Samsung Electronics launched on Sunday the latest in its full-touch mobile phone family designed primarily to support the digitally connected lifestyles of today's young mobile users. Dubbed Samsung “Corby Touch” and “Corby Messenger,” the new stylistic mobile phones seek to further meet the varied needs of the youth market, while aligning with Samsung's strategy of designing mobiles to match every lifestyle. Samsung Corby is notable for both its body design and colors -a marked departure from the way full touch phones are usually designed. Corby Touch's sensuous design comes in four different irresistible vibrant colors - Jamaican Yellow, Festival Orange, Cupid Pink and Minimal White - fitting for “youthful trendsetters.” Each Samsung Corby also comes with two additional back covers (also called fashion jackets) - a unique pattern design cover and a standard black cover inside the package. These interchangeable back covers ensure that Samsung Corby users can quickly adapt their mobiles to reflect their personal style. A wider variety of colored covers and designs will be made available in the future. In a press conference held at a plush seaside restaurant in Jeddah on Sunday, Samsung officials said Samsung Corby aims to stand out from the crowd with its pop-style contours and curved edge design. Moreover, the new models, just like its predecessors passed the 1.4 meter height “fall test” to determine their durability, Mohamed Kais, Samsung's hand-held phone (HHP) country manager said. He revealed that Samsung's “water-proof and dust-proof” mobile phones are already in the pipeline. Samsung, retaining its reputation as a leading mobile phone manufacturer, and a pioneer in technological innovation, said the global demand for “full-touch” mobile phones has skyrocketed by 96 percent to 75 million units in the second quarter of 2009 from 38 million units in the same period last year. In the Middle East and Africa region, the demand for the “full touch” mobile phones more than quadrupled to 937,000 units from 217,000 units or a staggering 430 percent increase over the same period. And Samsung has a commanding lead. “Globally, we are number one for full-screen touch phones and recognize the importance of social networks in the modern mobile industry,” said Inamullah Bhutt, PR & Marketing manager at Samsung Electronics KSA. With the launch of the Corby family devices - Corby Touch and Corby Messenger, Samsung extends its reach to youth audience. “Samsung Corby Touch and Corby Messenger seek to further meet the varied needs of the youth market, while aligning with Samsung's strategy of designing mobiles to match every lifestyle,” the official said. “The Corby family is consistent with Samsung's legacy of developing new products and technologies designed for specific audiences and bringing new devices quickly to market,” Bhutt added. “The focus with the Corby family has been to offer our consumers choice - choice over the color of the handset, choice over how they stay connected and choice over the features and functionality that best suit their unique personalities and communications requirements,” he explained. At the presentation of the phone's salient features, Kais said the “Corby Touch is a full-touch handset that places users at the center of the social media revolution with a wide range of social networks support, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. The new mobile complements the company's touch screen strategy, touch for every lifestyle by targeting the youth market.” The device represents a complete transformation for the youth segment, with its eye-catching profile featuring two-tone diagonal contours. “Samsung's target audiences are at the heart of its business strategy and the design and functionality of Corby Touch meets the needs of a highly digitally connected and style conscious youth audience - as does the affordable price point,” Inam further said. The Corby Messenger, on the other hand, is a QWERTY keypad's device matching the latest Saudi market trend of communication and offering an optimal experience to the Saudi young users. It is a message-centric mobile for heavy texters, delivering easy-to-use SMS and IM (Instant Messenger) features as well as intuitive social media uploading functionality. It incorporates the best social networking services combined with enhanced multimedia capabilities in a compact form factor. It also offers a quality online video experience and its quad band connectivity and support for EDGE network, enable the Corby family users to be in touch regardless of their location. The Corby phone has a retail price of SR649. Samsung also announced its ongoing one-month free service campaign in key cities across the Kingdom that will end on Nov. 20. And this early, mobile phone lovers are already eagerly anticipating the arrival of Samsung Omnia II and Samsung Android (Google platform) phones in the local market. G.C. Cho, Samsung's general manager in Saudi Arabia, added that they will be available in the Kingdom next month. Convinced that the touchscreen is the way of the future, the Omnia II carries on where the year-old original Omnia leaves off. It's “a success story of PocketPC wisdom and touch wizardry, of big screen and pixel,” one critic said.
