A recent report out of South Korea indicates that the company's next-generation flagship handset, the Galaxy S7, will be released in February 2016. The release would be a departure from Samsung's traditional April release schedule for S smartphones.
Samsung seems to be ramping up its production and release schedule to compete with Apple, its main rival. The company just released its two new flagship phablets, the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ in August, purportedly to beat Apple to the punch. Apple just released its newest iPhones, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, on Sept. 25, and has announced that demand for the devices shattered previous sales records, with more than 13 million of the new handsets already sold.
Now, an analyst in South Korea, Samsung's home turf, has stated that he expects the company's latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S7, will be revealed in January 2016 and be available for sale the following month.
Last month, we reported that Samsung has apparently been utilizing a new, speedier development methodology to produce its new devices sooner. Rather than the old "waterfall" method, which involved the development of smartphones one section at a time, Samsung has switched to an "agile" methodology, which allows for development of various components of a new device simultaneously.
The new development methodology adds credence to the early release rumor, as does the source. The analyst in question works at SK Securities, which is an affiliate of one of South Korea's largest carriers, SK Telecom. The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S6 were both launched at Mobile World Congress and went on sale in April 2014 and 2015, respectively, but it appears as if Samsung may be pushing its release schedule up somewhat if this rumor holds true.
The Galaxy S7, which is code-named Jungfrau, is rumored to be packing a Snapdragon 820 processor and running Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.
