Hands-On With The Samsung Focus S For AT&T
If the Samsung Focus Flash had you even remotely excited, then the Focus S is sure to leave you thrilled. With almost all the same specs as baby brother, the Focus S brings a slightly larger screen and more powerful camera to an already snappy little phone.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Focus S is Samsung's second year of Windows Phone hardware on AT&T, following the original Focus that anchored the carrier's Q4 2010 smartphone push alongside the Galaxy Tab and BlackBerry Torch. The new model is deliberately incremental: nearly all the Focus Flash's specs, plus a slightly larger screen and a more capable camera.
The timing matters beyond the spec sheet. Per IDC, Samsung took the top spot in global smartphones in Q3 2011, and the same month it was pressing Apple hard in court — seeking an Australian iPhone 4S ban, demanding firmware source code and telco agreements, and deposing Apple designers including Jony Ive by December 1.
First-order effects
- AT&T now sells a two-tier Focus lineup — Flash and S — so the carrier's Windows Phone shelf is segmented by screen size and camera rather than by distinct products, simplifying the choice for buyers into a price question.
- Samsung keeps carrier shelf space filling with fresh hardware even as its litigation calendar against Apple intensifies, so the retail push and the courtroom campaign run in parallel.
Second-order effects
- Rivals on AT&T's Windows Phone roster face a partner that can field multiple variants of one design cheaply, pressuring them to match the tiering or cede the midrange slots.
- If the Australian ban attempt or source-code demands gain traction, Samsung's broad carrier portfolio becomes leverage: injunctions against one Apple device matter less when your own models sit across every price tier.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward carrier lineups built from many near-identical variants of a single platform — differentiation by screen and camera increments — which favors manufacturers with Samsung's supply-chain scale over smaller Windows Phone licensees.
- Sustained FRAND-based injunction attempts against Apple, if they keep recurring, invite regulators to clarify how standard-essential patents can be used, a structural question this litigation wave is forcing toward an answer.
The trend: Samsung is scaling a many-variant, multi-carrier hardware strategy across price tiers at the same time as it wages patent war on Apple, making handset breadth itself a competitive weapon.