Samsung has just officially announced the SGH-L870 S60 smartphone. It has a classy stainless steel slider body, housing a 3-megapixel camera, 2.4” QVGA display, 100MB of memory, microSD slot, FM radio and Stereo Bluetooth. On the connectivity side the L870 is a tri-band GSM unit with single band UMTS/HSDPA 3.6Mbps support thrown in too. Not about to set the world alight then, but no slouch either.
That’s the stuffy specs part but the really juicy details about this handset lie in the software. First of all the L870 will run the latest Symbian 9.3 and 3rd Edition of the S60 interface with Feature Pack 2 just like the newest Nokia smartphones, which is certainly welcome.
The real shocker however is that it will come with the Safari browser pre-loaded straight out of the box. Apple has typically held it’s proprietary applications close to its chest, branching out with iTunes (as a means to command the MP3 market beyond people who don’t own Macs) and then with a Windows version of its Safari internet browser. Seeing the company follow down the same route in the mobile space is a little out of the blue, but it is certainly in keeping with the company’s strategies elsewhere.
Indeed, unlike with the PC market, Safari makes a strong case for best internet browser in the mobile market, making it an apt linchpin for Apple to command a slice of market share beyond iPhone sales.
We have to wonder what the mobile Safari browser will be like, sans touchscreen, but either way, this is a bold move.
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