South Korean heavyweight Samsung has now taken the wraps off of its latest and greatest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4. Leading up to the event, there was a steady stream of rumors and supply chain leaks as to what the company might have up its sleeve for the follow up to its popular Galaxy S III device.
From the perspective of smartphone component suppliers, higher volumes mean scoring a design win in the device can be quite a boon for the top line. The previous Galaxy S III was the No. 3 smartphone in the world in the fourth quarter, and the new model has potential to fetch similarly high volumes. Two of the more important possible suppliers heading into the unveiling were Qualcomm (QCOM +3.22%) and Universal Display (PANL 4.54%).
Expectedly, Qualcomm scored some of the processor win with its Snapdragon processors. Samsung targets a wide range of carriers and geographies and tailors different variants to different regions. Since Qualcomm has huge advantages in LTE integration, Snapdragons will be found in the U.S. variants, since LTE is a requisite feature of any high-end flagship hoping to compete domestically. In other parts of the world that are still primarily on 3G, Samsung is using its own Exynos 5 Octa chips.
Samsung Galaxy S4 with AMOLED display. Source: Samsung.
On the display front, Samsung has put a full 1,080p HD resolution into the 5-inch display. There was speculation that the company was having trouble manufacturing OLED displays of this caliber and would switch to a different display technology, even though the company has been one of the biggest proponents of OLED technology. Fortunately for Universal Display investors, Samsung has gone with an AMOLED display in the Galaxy S4, which will boost UDC's material sales.
If the Galaxy S4 does as well as the previous generation, these suppliers will hitch a ride to the upside.
