A Galaxy S3 with a four inch screen?

Samsung to reveal mini Galaxy S III Thursday

Posted by Brittany Hillen on October 10, 2012.

Last week, we posted that Samsung seemingly planned to announce the existence of the much-rumored Galaxy S III Mini on October 11th. The company had sent out invitations to an event, which hinted at the announcement of “something small that will be big,” and given the massive popularity of the Galaxy S III, it wasn’t hard to guess what they meant. Following this is an announcement that Samsung does, indeed, plan to announce a 4 inch version of the massively popular Galaxy S III, confirming the rumors that have been circulating.

JK Shin of Samsung Mobile Communications stated that the 4-inch version of the S3 will be released in Germany on October 11th. Less the smaller size make you think otherwise, Shin assured reports at the announcement that the phone will have “full form factor,” and that it will not be an entry-level smartphone. The Galaxy S III Mini will be bucking the trend set by other high-end Android smartphone by offering such a small screen; most high-end smartphones have considerably larger displays.

Perhaps most intriguing was that this announcement has come shortly before the fabled Apple iPad Mini announcement that has been circulating the Internet. Rumor has it that Apple will be releasing a smaller form-factor iPad in order to compete with the variety of 7-inch Android tablets that have been gaining traction in the market, mostly due to their much lower price point. The Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7, in particular, have proven to be very popular, but a cheaper iPad made possible by adopting a smaller form factor could cause serious competition for both.

Although Samsung’s announcement has trumped whatever announcement Apple might have planned, it’s not likely that a miniature Galaxy S III would pose any threat to either a smaller iPad or any of the currently popular Android tablets. The mini iPad is rumored to have an 8 inch screen, twice the size of the Galaxy S III Mini, and while the mini iPad (if it comes to fruition) is a tablet, the mini S3 is a smartphone. Any comparisons made between the two should be taken lightly, since, while similar on the surface, they are dissimilar devices with different markets.