Samsung is offering no hints about the Galaxy S6 or its release date at the CES 2015 convention, forcing a deeper look for those who want clues about the next generation Android smartphone. The Samsung booth at the Consumer Electronics Show is still all about the Galaxy S5 and its growing number of variants, among other current products, meaning we can scratch off any hope that the S6 might make a surprise debut at the show. But what now?
Amid lackluster sales for the Galaxy S5, which was largely a rehash of the S4 with some incremental add-ons, Samsung is ripe for tearing up the blueprint and starting over. There is no longer any larger-screen card to be played, with rival Apple now offering larger iPhones. And Google still controls the core Android interface and system software. That forces Samsung to make its signature changes to the Galaxy S6 by offering a revamped hardware design which represents a departure from anything which came before – and by offering hardware based features which its Android based rivals lack. That still leaves the release date in question, but that may not be difficult to answer.
Samsung has a history of introducing its next generation Galaxy S smartphones in the late spring, so April or May is a safe bet for a benchmark for the Galaxy S6 release date. With sales slumping, and the Apple Watch threatening to steal more smartphone business away once it launches, it’s possible Samsung may move up the S6 launch to something closer to March. But if it were going to happen this month, it would have made its appearance at CES 2015, and that ship has sailed.
