Could a March 14 Galaxy S4 launch sink the HTC One?

We all know that HTC is about to announce its flagship the HTC One today, and if the specs are anything to go by, it will be a hot handset indeed.

However, if HTC was hoping to have all the limelight for itself, news that Samsung is going to announce the Galaxy S4 less than a month after today’s announcement will come as a jolt. Samsung’s marketing machinery always works in overdrive when a new product is about to be launched, especially when it’s the flagship in question.

A leaked render of the HTC One

A March announcement for the Galaxy S4 could seriously damage the Taiwanese company’s hopes. That's a sentiment shared by Mobile-review’s Eldar Murtazin, who has a proven track record when it comes to pre-announcment leaks. Murtazin tweeted that there will be a big announcement on March 14 and that it will once again affect the sales of HTC’s smartphone flagship, just like in 2012, when the Galaxy S3 one-upped the HTC One X.

HTC would have been hoping to have at least a month to itself to give the HTC One greater coverage and space in the consumer's mind. But a Samsung announcement so close to the HTC One launch could be the death knell even if HTC's handset delivers on the better experience that HTC claims. As the company will well know, it's seldom a great idea to take on Samsung at the game of marketing. Samsung already pushes out more handsets than any other Android-centric OEM. So HTC will have to go for broke at today's announcement.

Eldar Murtazin's tweet about the March 14 announcement

The Verge says its sources familiar with Samsung’s plans have confirmed that March 14 launch for the next-gen Galaxy S flagship. The website goes on to say, “Design of the new model is said to be a 'tightly-guarded secret.' We're told that the company will once again emphasize features over raw specs; tricks like the eye-tracking Smart Stay were a big part of the S III's story, and we'd expect more of the same next month. ‘The leap in cool new features from [Galaxy S III] to the next flagship will be bigger’ than the leap from the S II to the S III, sources say.”

The Samsung Galaxy S4 (or whatever its final name will be) is expected to take the Galaxy S brand to the next level. So much so that Samsung is hoping to ship 100 million of the handsets this year alone.

Some rumoured specs of the phone are:

• 4.99-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, 440ppi
• 4G LTE, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi HT40, dual-band Wi-Fi, WiFi Direct, WiFi hotspot
• GPS with GLONASS and A-GPS support
• Bluetooth v4.0 with USB 2.0 Host
• NFC support with speakers
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor, gyro-sensor, compass
• 13-megapixel camera with full HD video recording, 2MP front-facing camera
• 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB versions with microSD card slot

The Galaxy S4 is also rumoured to have a 3100mAh battery, which makes sense for a phone with a full HD display.

The Verge’s sources go on to reveal that the Galaxy Note 8.0, which has been leaked far and wide, will be announced at Mobile World Congress next week. However, its design will be totally different from the one we have seen in the leaks. "That mockup [...] that has been making the rounds? That's old news," the website was told. The sources further say that when the Note 8.0 will be revealed its real design will foreshadow the aesthetics of the Galaxy S IV, which “hasn't leaked at all".

Dedicated Samsung blog SamMobile also confirmed the March 14 launch and, based on Murtazin’s tweet, has confirmed that the announcement will take place in New York City.