Clash of Titans: Apple, Samsung and Google to launch flagship smartphones ahead of festive season

Specs of Samsung Galaxy Note 8 revealed

Planning to buy an expensive phone this Diwali or Dussehra? You will be spoilt for choices this year as three of the biggest smartphone makers Samsung, Apple, Nokia and Google are coming up with their flagship phones this festive season.

Samsung is launching Note 8 in India on Tuesday and Apple is launching the latest iPhone X worldwide. Needless to say, both the phones have been the most talked about phones since the beginning of the year.

To add to the choices, Finnish device maker Nokia will be launching the all new Nokia 8 anytime this month. Google is launching its own flagship device the Google Pixel 2, supposedly in the early part of October.

Interestingly, while Samsung, Nokia and Google are launching a phone each, Apple is expected to launch three phones together iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, the model which Apple is releasing to commemorate ten years since Apple launched the first iPhone.

While it is good for consumers who have a lot of options on their plate, there is a lot riding on these launches for the companies.

For example, Note 8 is super-critical for Samsung as it is the successor of Note 7, the phone which was riddled with the battery explosion fiasco. Not only did it damage Samsung’s brand value globally, it also resulted in a number of recalls resulting in billions of dollars of losses for the company. The launch of Note 8 also becomes significant given the fact that Samsung’s last release -- the Galaxy S8 -- received a lukewarm reception in the market.

Samsung will be launching Note 8 in a 64GB variant and will feature best-in-class features such as the latest processor, 6GB RAM and of course the dual-rear camera in addition to the S-Pen which is making a comeback in the series after a brief suspension.

On the other hand, Apple is launching the latest iPhone models a year since it launched Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus back in September 2016.

iPhone 8 assumes significance for Apple in light of the fact that it is expected to introduce several new features to the model -- the previous iPhone was said to be only an incremental improvement over its predecessor.

Apart from additions such as a rumoured OLED screen for the first time ever along with an all-display screen, the phone will also see a few features missing such as the physical home-screen-button for the first time since it was launched 10 years ago.

Notably, the latest iPhone is rumoured to be priced above the USD 1000 mark, which could be a deterrent to a lot of potential buyers. However, a survey conducted recently by Creative Strategies and SurveyMonkey found out that 21 percent of consumers planning to buy the new iPhone would do it no matter what the cost.

Interestingly, the smartphone majors are not just fighting a battle among themselves. These have to fend off a fight competition with mid-range Chinese smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, Gionee, OnePlus, etc who have multiple ‘flagship killers’ in their kitty.

So smartphone users can expect exciting times ahead.