Andrew is covering the event live, so watch for his posts later on…but for now, here is the announcement!

Samsung is announcing the Galaxy S III today in London.  Our very own Andrew Edney is at the launch event and will post on that soon.  For now, here is the official Samsung product launch announcement.

SAMSUNG INTRODUCES THE GALAXY S III
Effortlessly smart and intuitively simple – a new kind of smartphone

3 May 2012, London, UK – Samsung Electronics today announced the third generation Galaxy S, the Galaxy S III, a phone so intuitive that it is able to recognise your voice and understand your intention. Sleek and innovative, this latest smartphone is packed with enhanced intelligence to make everyday life easier: designed for humans and inspired by nature.

With the Samsung Galaxy S IIII, you can view content like never before on a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, whilst an 8MP camera and an 1.9MP front camera offer a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options so you can capture all moments easily and instantly. The Samsung Galaxy S III is powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and full of intuitive technology, delivering a uniquely personalised mobile experience.

Andy Griffiths, Managing Director, Samsung UK and Ireland said: “Our aim with the Galaxy S III was to develop the best smartphone ever made, and by focusing on creating a unique user experience through superior hardware and enhanced usability we believe we have done just that. The device has been created by keeping in mind our daily needs and capabilities as human beings. Simple yet brilliant, the Galaxy S III is packed with smart features that enable it to understand and respond to our actions providing the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experience.”

Introducing Natural Interaction

The Galaxy S III’s main USP is that it enhances the interaction between the device and its owner. Smart enough to detect your face, voice and gestures, the Galaxy S III adapts to the individual user to provide a more convenient and natural user experience. With the innovative ‘Smart stay’ feature, the device recognises how you are using your phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by using the front camera to identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.

With ‘S Voice,’ an advanced natural language user interface, the Galaxy S III listens and responds to your words. In addition to allowing information search and basic device-user communication, ‘S Voice’ provides powerful device control and commands. When your phone alarm goes off but you need a little extra rest, just tell the Galaxy S III “snooze” – and it snoozes. You can also use ‘S Voice’ to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organise your schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo – all through you speaking to the device.

In addition to recognising your face and voice, the Galaxy S III understands your motions. If you are messaging someone but decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and ‘Direct call’ will dial their number. With ‘Smart alert,’ the Galaxy S III will catch any missed messages or calls; your phone will vibrate to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle.

Easy and Instant Sharing

The Samsung Galaxy S III is more than a personal device that can be enjoyed by one person – it wants you to share and experience smartphone benefits with family and friends, regardless of where you are. With the new ‘S Beam,’ the Galaxy S III expands upon Android™ Beam, allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another Galaxy S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. The ‘Buddy photo share’ function also allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with all your friends pictured in an image directly from a camera or photo gallery.

With ‘AllShare Cast’, you can wirelessly connect your Galaxy S III to your television to immediately transfer smartphone content onto a larger display. ‘AllShare Play’ can be used to instantly share any files between your Galaxy S III and DLNA supported tablet, PC, and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices. The ‘Group Cast’ feature also allows you to share your screen among multiple friends on the same Wi-Fi network; you can make comments and draw changes at the same time with your co-workers, witnessing real-time sharing on your individual device.

Human-centric Design with Uncompromised Performance

The Galaxy S III not only has features with enhanced usability, but also provides an ergonomic and comfortable experience through its human-centric design, with a comfortable grip, gentle curves, and organic form. Inspired by nature, its design concept is the flow and movement of nature. The elements of wind, water and light are all evoked in the physical construct of the Galaxy S III. Available in Pebble Blue and Marble White at launch, Samsung will introduce a variety of additional colour options at a later date.

Thanks to its 4.8” HD Super AMOLED display, the Galaxy S III offers a large and vivid viewing experience. Samsung Mobile’s heritage Super AMOLED display even enhances to HD and 16:9 wider viewing angles. To ensure faster connectivity, the Galaxy S III offers Wi-Fi Channel Bonding which doubles the Wi-Fi bandwidth.

The Galaxy S III also sports a range of additional features that boost performance and the overall user experience in entirely new ways. It introduces ‘Pop up play,’ a feature that allows you to play a video anywhere on your screen while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the Web. Its 8MP camera features a zero-lag shutter speed that lets you capture moving objects easily without delay – the image you see is the picture you take.

With the ‘Burst shot’ function that instantly captures twenty continuous frames, and the ‘Best photo’ feature that selects the best of eight photographs for you, the Galaxy S III offers a more enhanced and memorable camera experience. HD video can be recorded even with the 1.9MP front facing camera, which you can use to capture a video of yourself. Improved backside illumination further helps to eliminate blur in photos that result from shaking, even under low lights.