When HTC announced the phone last month, it said the One would be sold at AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. A mention of Verizon was noticeably absent.

However, Verizon will also carry the high-end Android device, according to a source familiar with the situation. Its launch at Verizon, though, will trail the other U.S. carriers by a month or two as it winds its way through the testing process.

HTC and Verizon representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The eventual launch at Verizon means that all four major carriers will be carrying the One, allowing the product to fulfill a key objective for the struggling phone maker.

When HTC announced the first One models in 2012, the goal was to create a single flagship line that would help define HTC’s image in the minds of consumers. The first One series, though, was actually three distinct phones — the One X, One V and One S.

What’s more, Sprint and Verizon opted to carry their own high-end HTC models rather than any of the three Ones.

This year, though, HTC has managed to get all four carriers to support the One. That should help the company, which is seeking to boost its visibility and better compete against high-end rivals, particularly Apple and Samsung.

HTC is not alone in having to struggle to get mobile operators on board with carrying the same flagship models. Samsung made a host of Galaxy models before convincing carriers to go with essentially the same Galaxy S3 last year.

Having the same model at all the carriers could help HTC get more bang for its marketing bucks, as it can focus the bulk of its efforts on a single product.

And it will need every bit of that budget to compete against Samsung’s Galaxy S4, which is slated to be unveiled Thursday at a glitzy launch in Manhattan.

The once high-flying Taiwanese phone maker has been struggling mightily in recent months. The company has seen its market share slip even as it continues to produce well-regarded phones.

The company has said it plans to speak with a louder voice this year as it tries to regain lost ground.

A Samsung representative confirmed the date and location for the event, but declined to offer further details.

The confirmation comes just as the world’s biggest cellphone show — Mobile World Congress — kicks off in Barcelona. Samsung used the show to launch an eight-inch version of its Galaxy Note tablet, but, like HTC, opted not to make its big news at the show.

The Galaxy S has emerged as the biggest single rival to Apple’s iPhone, and has propelled Samsung to become the most high-profile — and profitable — of the Android device makers.

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The deep-pocketed Korean company has used a combination of engineering prowess, manufacturing heft and marketing savvy to create smartphones that can rival the iPhone in both sales and appeal.

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Judge Lucy Koh heard about an hour’s worth of arguments from the lawyers on both sides before ruling that the documents and testimony presented by Apple were enough to form the basis for a reasonable jury to find infringement. Apple is seeking billions of dollars in damages from Samsung, arguing a number of its phones and tablets infringe on Apple’s intellectual property.

The judge did cut a small piece from the lawsuit, dropping three phones not broadly sold in the U.S., at least as the suit applies to Samsung’s two U.S. subsidiaries. Apple can still pursue its claim on all other phones in the case as well as its claim against Samsung’s Korean parent company with regards to the Galaxy Ace and global variants of the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II smartphones.

The ruling doesn’t apply to the U.S.-specific models of the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II, which represent the bulk of the Samsung sales at issue in the case.

Earlier in the day, an Apple-hired accounting expert testified that Apple is owed between $2.5 billion and $2.75 billion if the jury finds infringement of all of the patents and trade dress claims at issue.

Before that, Apple patent licensing executive Boris Teksler testified that Apple’s offer to license patents to Samsung did not include those covering the iPhone’s unique user interface.

With Koh’s ruling allowing the case to continue, Samsung must now make its case to the jury. The company argues both that it isn’t infringing on Apple’s patents and trade dress and that Apple shouldn’t have been granted the patents in the first place.

First up on the witness stand for Samsung is Ben Bederson, a University of Maryland professor and among the creators of LaunchTile. LaunchTile, created in partnership with Microsoft’s research arm and a start-up called Zumobi, was designed to allow one-handed use of a smartphone through zooming.

The technology was originally designed in the summer of 2004 and intended to work on Pocket PC devices such as the Compaq iPaq.

Samsung is trying to show LaunchTile as an example of prior art for one or more of the Apple patents involved in the case. If Samsung can show that any of Apple’s patent are invalid because its inventions weren’t new, it can’t be held liable for infringing any such patent or patents.

On cross-examination, Bederson is showing the differences between the way that program worked and how Apple’s iPhone and related patents work. First of all, LaunchTile used so-called symantic zoom. That means that as one zooms in the content they see doesn’t simply get bigger, but rather that more information becomes available.

Also, as it relates to a bounce-back feature that was part of LaunchTile, Apple pointed out some ways that it differs from the “rubber band” feature that is part of one of Apple’s utility patents at issue.

Update, 3:56 p.m.: Following Bederson, Samsung called Adam Bogue, a former Mitsubishi researcher who helped with the creation and marketing of DiamondTouch, a multitouch tabletop computer reminiscent of an early Microsoft Surface device (the old Microsoft Surface table computer, not the forthcoming tablet).

Developed in the early 2000s, DiamondTouch had a capacitive touch screen.

The company, Bogue said, gave away a few hundred of the devices to university research teams to come up with applications. Bogue said that DiamondTouch even demonstrated the tabletop to a half dozen people at Apple in 2003.

Bogue showed the jury one app in particular, FractalZoom, which he said shows off the computer’s multi-touch capabilities. Samsung is trying to use this as an example of prior art for using a single finger to move an object and a two-finger gesture to zoom in and out.

One of the Apple patents at issue in this case covers using a single finger gesture for scrolling and a second, two-finger gesture for zooming in and out.

Bogue later showed another app, “tablecloth,” that has a snap-back feature that appears somewhat similar to Apple’s patented technology. Apple’s patent specifically covers using the rubber-band feature for use when people reach the end of an electronic document.

4:22 p.m.: On cross-examination, Bogue testifies that he sold two DiamondTouch systems to Quinn Emannuel, Samsung’s law firm. Apple’s lawyers ask that it be produced and Samsung’s lawyers are wheeling it in.

Apple’s lawyer is making a big deal over the fact that the system uses a projector to put the image onto a white tabletop. Of note, the first Microsoft Surface tabletop computer worked similarly, but the projector was on the inside of the system.

4:33 p.m.: Jury done for the day, but guessing there will be some legal matters between lawyers and the judge now. There usually are.

Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage

However, the Apple-Samsung trial is providing a great deal more detail, including how many of each model both companies are selling, at least here in the U.S. during the time frame at issue in the suit.

Documents filed by Samsung lawyers on Thursday reveal that, from June 2010 through June 2012, Samsung sold 21.25 million phones, generating $7.5 billion in revenue. On the tablet side, the company sold 1.4 million Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices, producing $644 million in revenue.

In terms of individual phone models, the largest in units were the Galaxy Prevail with 2.25 million phones sold, the Epic 4G with 1.89 million phones sold and the Epic 4G Touch variant of the Galaxy S II, which sold 1.67 million units in the U.S. All told, Samsung sold 4.1 million Galaxy S II devices, when all models are included.

On the dollar side, the Epic 4G was the biggest revenue producer, generating 855 million between the third quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2012.

The full chart (above, click for larger version) will be of interest not only to those watching Apple and Samsung, but also for those looking for insight into just how well the four major carriers are doing in selling Samsung products. In many cases, the models listed were sold by just one carrier. The Epic phones, for example, are Sprint models, while the Droid Charge is a Verizon model and the Infuse 4G an AT&T device.

The documents filed Thursday show Apple’s phone and tablet sales as well, though the sales are only classified into iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

From 2007 through the second quarter of 2012, Apple sold a total of 85 million iPhones in the U.S., worth a total of $50 billion in revenue, along with 46 million iPod touches producing roughly $10.3 billion in revenue. From its 2010 launch, Apple sold 34 million iPads, generating $19 billion in revenue.

Lawyers for the companies have been trying to keep as much of this detail out of the public view as possible, but that battle appears largely lost.

The jury will need the numbers, of course, if it finds infringement by either Samsung or Apple of the other’s patents in order to determine damages. As both sides have found, though, suing one another will mean sharing far more information publicly than either would like.

In addition to financial data, the sides have also sought to keep secret their source code, agreements with third parties and other information they believe constitutes trade secrets. Apple has even sought to keep private its internal surveys of iPhone and iPad customers; Judge Lucy Koh has denied that request, though Apple has said it will appeal.

A number of other tech companies have also petitioned the court to keep various bits of information under seal, including Ericsson, Intel, RIM, Nokia and Microsoft. Reuters America is fighting that request, arguing that nearly all information should be made public.

Already the trial has provided a ton of insight into Apple, a company known for its secrecy. Revelations thus far include images of early iPhone and iPad prototypes, testimony about the creation of the first Apple phones and tablets and the kitchen table around which all Apple products are fashioned.

After a break on Wednesday and Thursday, court resumes on Friday with more testimony expected from Apple-hired experts. Naturally, AllThingsD will be in court to bring you the latest.

Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage

“All this time we’ve been paying all our attention to Nokia, and concentrated our efforts on things like Folder, Bar, Slide,” Shin wrote in the email, dated February of 2010, just one month before Samsung announced what would become its first extremely successful Android smartphone, the Galaxy S. “Yet when our UX is compared to the unexpected competitor Apple’s iPhone, the difference is truly that of Heaven and Earth.”

“It’s a crisis of design,” Shin wrote.

It’s important, considering Apple’s $2.5 billion case against Samsung involves whether or not Samsung infringed Apple’s patents for the iPhone and iPad with Samsung’s own Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. Specifically, Apple is suing Samsung over the way its phones look and act, claiming Samsung “slavishly copied” Apple’s handset design.

But when Samsung strategy head Justin Denison took the stand, he downplayed the language used in the email, citing it as hyperbole typical of that used internally at Samsung.

“Samsung does an excellent job of remaining very humble, self critical and maintaining a sense of urgency within its own ranks to drive hard work and innovation,” Denison said. “We want to change so that it never rests on its laurels and becomes complacent. So you hear a lot of hyperbolic statements like ‘crisis of design’ and ‘heaven and earth.’”

Later questions to Denison from Samsung attorney John Quinn attempted to downplay the importance of being first to market with certain designs. Denison said Apple hasn’t always beaten Samsung to the punch. Samsung has introduced many technologies before Apple, he said, including voice recognition tech. But Denison said he didn’t feel “ripped off” when Apple introduced similar features.

So, for example, if the iPhone 5 were to come out tomorrow with a larger screen (a feature it is expected to sport), Denison said he’d be fine with it — even though one of Samsung’s most striking features in its recent line of smartphones is the inclusion of increasingly larger screen sizes. It’s an industry trend, he says, and isn’t something worth griping over.

There is strategy in this: If Samsung plays it cool whenever Apple makes strides that could be seen as similar to Samsung’s, then by Samsung’s logic, Apple should be cool with the same.

Alas, that’s probably wishful thinking.

Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage

University of Nebraska

When Apple’s patent battle with Samsung heads to trial next week, the iPhone maker plans to build its case using its Korean rival’s own words against it. An unredacted version of Apple’s trial brief bluntly states that Samsung was well aware that its smartphones and tablets bore a striking resemblance to Apple’s iPhone and iPad and that the issue was one the company discussed internally.

“Samsung’s documents show the similarity of Samsung’s products is no accident or, as Samsung would have it, a ‘natural evolution,’” Apple argues in its brief. “Rather, it results from Samsung’s deliberate plan to free-ride on the iPhone’s and iPad’s extraordinary success by copying their iconic designs and intuitive user interface. Apple will rely on Samsung’s own documents, which tell an unambiguous story.”

Among those documents are a few purported to show that Samsung not only deliberately copied certain characteristics of the iPhone and iPad, but was also explicitily warned away from doing so by various third parties, including Google. Below, a sampling of some of Apple’s more compelling points excerpted from its brief.

• In February 2010, Google told Samsung that Samsung’s “P1” and “P3” tablets (Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1) were “too similar” to the iPad and demanded “distinguishable design vis-à-vis the iPad for the P3.”
• In 2011, Samsung’s own Product Design Group noted that it is “regrettable” that the Galaxy S “looks similar” to older iPhone models.
• As part of a formal, Samsung-sponsored evaluation, famous designers warned Samsung that the Galaxy S “looked like it copied the iPhone too much,” and that “innovation is needed.” The designers explained that the appearance of the Galaxy S “[c]losely resembles the iPhone shape so as to have no distinguishable elements,” and “[a]ll you have to do is cover up the Samsung logo and it’s difficult to find anything different from the iPhone.”

Damning stuff — as presented in this context, anyway. And it will be interesting to see how Samsung’s legal team rebuts it. That said, Samsung does have some ammunition of its own. Specifically, some 2006 internal design presentations that outline a mobile UI similar to the one that ultimately debuted on the iPhone, a handy before-and-after-the-iPhone-handset comparison and some internal Apple emails that it claims suggest “Apple’s ‘revolutionary’ iPhone design was derived from the designs of a competitor — Sony.”

Add to that Samsung’s claim that Apple’s lawsuit is anticompetitive and its argument that the iPhone maker should pay it for using patented technology, without which it “could not have become a successful participant in the mobile telecommunications industry,” and next week’s trial is shaping up to be a contentious one indeed.

Apple versus Samsung Full Coverage

For most of that history, at least here in the U.S., the carriers have had the largest pull. As the ones that buy the devices and are responsible for selling them to customers, carriers have traditionally been able to make sure their brand is the biggest, if not the only one, and that the phones themselves look and feel a certain way.

The iPhone has been the major exception, shipping in an Apple box, with no carrier branding and in exactly the same form no matter which operator is selling it. But other device makers are also taking note.

With the first Galaxy S phones, Samsung managed to make sure each device was tagged as “a Galaxy S smartphone,” even though each of the U.S. carriers had their own moniker, such as Fascinate, Vibrant and Captivate. With the Galaxy S II, there were still variations in design and screen size, though the Galaxy S II name was universally adopted. (Sprint did insist on appending the Epic 4G Touch to the name, giving its Galaxy S II a long name and a split personality.)

This time around, Samsung is changing all that. Each U.S. carrier is selling essentially the same Galaxy S III device. It looks the same and packs nearly identical features, with the cellphone radio being the only key variable. (The phone supports LTE networks on Sprint, Verizon and AT&T, while using HSPA+ on T-Mobile.)

Indeed, in a demo, Samsung VP Nick DiCarlo had to turn the phone over to double check which model he was holding (it was T-Mobile’s).

The carriers are able to do a little bit of customization when it comes to software, preloading their own apps. In T-Mobile’s case, for example, the Galaxy S III comes loaded with apps for the carrier’s TV service and hotspot-connection software.

There’s a variety of reasons why Samsung wants to do this — and why the carriers are willing to go along. Unifying its flagship phone allows Samsung to get more bang for its advertising buck. It also creates the kind of device that carriers hope customers will ask for by name, the way they do with the iPhone.

For Android, the move offers a chance to have a single hit phone to compete with the iPhone, something that Google, the carriers and Samsung clearly all want.

It’s a mixed bag for the carriers, though, who tend to like to have their own brands. Sprint, for example, likes to use the Evo brand for its HTC devices, and has, until the Galaxy S III, gone with the Epic brand for its high-end Samsung phones.

“We think in franchises,” Sprint’s David Owens said in an interview on Tuesday. That said, Sprint has managed to build a very powerful brand in its own right. Importantly, Samsung is backing up the launch with a big marketing campaign of its own.

“The benefit of a global platform comes if the manufacturer is really willing to get behind it with their own investment,” Owens said.

As a result, Owens said, the carrier is happy to sell the phone as is, and to go head to head with rival carriers, based on price. As it does with the iPhone, Sprint plans to market heavily around the fact that it will be the only major carrier offering unlimited data plans with the device.

Sprint, like the other carriers, is also preloading various pieces of software and services.

T-Mobile, whose Galaxy S III will be the only model not running on an LTE network, said it is confident that it can stand out, even against rivals with the combination of its rate plans, network and services.

“We’re not really worried,” says T-Mobile’s Randy Meyerson, director of product management.

DiCarlo said that its effort to offer only a single flavor of the Galaxy S III in the U.S. involved some negotiation.

“Everything in the phone busiess is a discussion, for sure,” DiCarlo said.

Many of these branding issues are particular to the U.S. market, where most cellphones are bought by carriers and then sold to customers. As a result, carriers are powerful links in the chain, often capable of dictating how a phone will be designed, named, packaged and priced.

In many other countries, phones are sold directly to customers, either with or without an operator subsidy. In those places, the device maker’s brand has long ruled the day when it comes to high-end devices, though carriers like Orange have increasingly been targeting the mid-tier and low end with phones built for it and carrying its name alongside, or instead of, that of the hardware maker.

Several carriers have said their preference is to have several strong players in the market, hitting a variety of price points.

These days, the smartphone market is largely a two-stable race between Android and the iPhone. But where Apple’s strength is consolidated with the iPhone, Google’s power has been spread among dozens of different models from a wide range of big-name and lesser-known phone makers.

Samsung is clearly the largest player in the Android camp, though it also makes devices running Windows Phone and its homegrown Bada software. Combined, Apple and Samsung account for 99 percent of the industry’s profits, and a growing share of the sales figures, as well.

Canaccord Genuity technology analyst Michael Walkley predicted this week that Samsung and Apple will account for roughly half of smartphone unit sales this year and next.

Expectations for the Galaxy S III are high. Best Buy started taking orders for the phone on Tuesday, and said it has seen a strong initial response.

“The Samsung Galaxy S III is going to be one of the biggest phone launches of the year and we have already seen excitement from our customers,” Best Buy merchandising VP Scott Anderson said in an email.

“Our March checks indicated the iPhone continues to extend its market share gains,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley writes in a note to clients today. “In fact, we believe iPhones are outselling all other smartphones combined at Sprint and AT&T and selling at roughly equal volume to all Android smartphones at Verizon.”

That’s pretty astonishing, all things considered. The iPhone does have some formidable competition. Indeed, Walkley notes that Samsung’s Galaxy S II is selling quite well at AT&T and Sprint, while its Samsung Galaxy Nexus is doing well at Verizon.

“Our global checks also indicated another quarter of strong market share gains for Samsung, particularly in Europe and Asia,” says Walkley. “In fact, we believe Samsung’s strong smartphone portfolio across all price tiers will result in Samsung’s smartphone shipments increasing a remarkable 15%-plus sequentially during the seasonally weak March quarter.”

If those trends continue, Samsung may establish itself as Apple’s archrival in the smartphone space.

While it plans to show some new mobile devices in Barcelona, the Galaxy S III won’t be one of them.

“The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product,” the company said in a statement.

One reason for the timing could be a desire to tie the new product’s launch more closely with the Olympics, of which Samsung is a major sponsor. Marketing exec Younghee Lee told AllThingsD that Samsung wants to use the London Games as a vehicle for a major product launch.

Samsung Mobile is airing its first-ever Super Bowl commercial on Sunday, touting the 5-inch Galaxy Note “phablet.”

The spots, which take direct aim at Apple, have a familiar ring at this point: Apple die-hards wait in line for the latest iPhone, only to be shown up by a passerby with a Galaxy in hand.

In the latest spot, the roommate of one of those in line stops by with a charger for his friends, who notice that his phone has turn-by-turn navigation. He smugly points out that it’s an included feature on his phone, unlike the iPhone, where live GPS-style directions require a third-party app.

“Oh, we just got Samsung-ed,” whines one of the queued-up Apple fans.

It’s another fun spot, though the comments on Samsung’s Facebook page suggest not everyone loves it. One Galaxy S II owner complains about dropped calls, while another bemoans how his phone doesn’t have LTE (of course, some Galaxy S II models do have LTE, and no iPhone supports it).

In any case, it will be interesting to see what Samsung comes up with for its Super Bowl spot.

Late Sunday, Samsung said that handset shipments for 2011 have surpassed 300 million units, the first time they’ve done so since the company entered the mobile-phone market in 1988.

More impressive still: They reached that number by the end of November.

So really, this is an 11-month record. It also happens to exceed Samsung’s 2010 handset shipments by a fairly wide margin. Last year, the company recorded sales of 280 million handsets. And it took a full year to do it.

Obviously, Samsung has seen sales accelerate significantly over the past year. And according to company executives, that’s largely thanks to its flagship Galaxy S series smartphones. The S series has been Samsung’s fastest-selling device to date, passing the 10-million-sold mark in just five months.

“We attained the 300 million mark because we’ve introduced hit models in succession by banking on upscale designs and cutting-edge technology,” a Samsung executive told the Dong-a Ilbo, adding, “The attainment of the 300 million mark in mobile handsets effectively demonstrates that Korea is taking the center stage in the global mobile handset market.”

The devices, which are to the Samsung Galaxy line of phones what the iPod touch is to the iPhone, will hit retail shelves on Oct. 16. A model with a five-inch screen will sell for $269, while a similar device with a four-inch screen is priced at $229. Both include a 3.2 megapixel rear camera, a VGA front camera and eight gigabytes of memory, which can be expanded with a microSD card. The five-inch model weighs just over six ounces, while the four-inch model weighs 4.27 ounces; the former has a significantly larger battery.

Samsung showed the devices at the CTIA trade show in Orlando in March and said then that it expected the devices to ship in May.

The Wi-Fi models represent an interesting option for those looking to try Android without committing to a phone (and accompanying two-year contract). While the iPod touch has clearly found a significant market, it is unclear how large the demand is on the Android side of things.

Also yet to be seen is if these products, like other Android models from Samsung, draw the ire of Apple’s legal department.

“It is no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging,” said Apple spokesman Steve Park. “This kind of blatant copying is wrong and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Samsung, which has filed a few suits of its own against Apple, vowed to fight on.

“Samsung will actively defend our intellectual property rights in Japan in order to ensure consumers can continue to enjoy our innovative mobile devices without interruption,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to pursue Apple for its ongoing violation of our wireless technology patents.”

A Dutch court has ordered an injunction against sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Ace smartphones across the European Union, after determining the devices violate an Apple software patent entitled “Portable Electronic Device for Photo Management.”

The order, which applies in the Netherlands and any EU country where the patent is registered, will take effect in seven weeks — sometime in mid-October. And when it does, it could prove a logistical nightmare for Samsung, which moves a lot of its European merchandise through the port of Rotterdam.

Doesn’t bode well for Google’s Android OS, either.

“Regardless of how Samsung may be able to work around this decision in Europe, it’s a severe blow for Android,” Florian Mueller writes over at FOSS Patents. “In all likelihood, the winning patent is infringed by Android itself — probably not the operating system per se, but by one or more of the applications that ship with Android and without which the usefulness of Android would be impaired in one particular area (photo viewing). Apple now has the first enforceable court decision in its hand (out of many lawsuits going on around the world) that finds Android to infringe an Apple patent.”

UPDATE:

Samsung, for its part, doesn’t seem too worried about the ruling or the embargo, which it is evidently prepared to work around.

“Today’s ruling is an affirmation that the Galaxy range of products is innovative and distinctive,” the company said in a statement. “With regard to the single infringement cited in the ruling, we will take all possible measures including legal action to ensure that there is no disruption in the availability of our Galaxy smartphones to Dutch consumers. This ruling is not expected to affect sales in other European markets.”

The long wait, however, appears to be nearly over. Samsung has sent out invitations to media for an Aug. 29 event in New York for what it bills as “a major product announcement.”

The invite doesn’t completely spell things out, but leaves little doubt as to what is on the agenda. The text is set against a field of stars — a galaxy if you will — along with the “II” logo that Samsung has used with the Galaxy S II.

The S II, Samsung’s latest marquee smartphone, debuted in South Korea at the end of April, and in Japan and Europe in May. So it has essentially been at market for about 85 days now, and passed the five-million-shipped milestone in 40 fewer days than its predecessor, the Galaxy S. (To be clear, we’re talking devices sold to carriers here.)

“Since being launched into the retail market in late April, the Galaxy S II has seen tremendous growth,” JK Shin, head of Samsung’s mobile communications business, said in a statement.

Encouraging news for Samsung, which plans to launch the dual-core Android phone in the States sometime next month. The company announced in May that it had sold 3 million of the S II phones after unveiling the product at the Mobile World Congress back in February.

Samsung is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings this Friday.

The 8.5-millimeter-thin phone, announced at February’s Mobile World Congress, features a 4.3-inch Super Amoled Plus screen, the Gingerbread version of Android and a dual-core processor to improve upon the original Galaxy S line, which has sold more than 10 million devices.

The milestone, however, is less than shocking, given that the cellphone maker announced in May that it had three million preorders for the device.

As for its U.S. launch, details are still unclear, though it is expected to be broadly available in the not too distant future on a number of carriers, though none are offering up official information.

At $179 and without any standout features, the phone doesn’t appear to be breaking any new ground. Though it bears the Galaxy brand, it lacks some of the higher-end features of the Galaxy S line such as the high-end screen and HD camcorder.

But the Galaxy Prevail, which will go on sale in late April, offers more than its spec sheet would indicate. Boost makes up for some of the hardware deficiencies by pairing the device with extremely inexpensive rate plans and selling the device without a contract.

Its unlimited text, talk and Web plan starts at $50 a month and actually goes down from there. For each six months that customers pays their bill on time, the monthly rate drops by $5 a month until it reaches $35 a month.

The move shows the price flexibility that Android is starting to afford to carriers. Android phones are widely predicted to enter significantly lower price points this year, with the potential to hit $100 without a subsidy.

In this case, the phone itself is not being sold that cheaply, but Samsung is clearly selling the device inexpensively enough to Sprint that it can afford to pair the device with such low prices.

It turns out that Samsung was doing more than just grumbling after Apple introduced its ultrathin iPad 2.

The company had just shown a new 10-inch tablet a couple weeks earlier, but quickly realized its product was a bit bulky to compete.

“We went back to the drawing board,” said Samsung Mobile executive Omar Khan, noting that the company already had some things cooking in its research labs. “We will not be outdone. It accelerated some of the commercialization of technology we already had in the works.”

Barely a month after showing the first 10.1-inch tablet, the company had a new, thinner design ready to announce. The actual devices, however, won’t ship until summer.

Indications that the products are still a work in progress abound at the Samsung booth. Although the company has working units of both the 8.9-inch and 10-inch tablets at its booth, all are in older, thicker shells. Even the working versions of the 8.9-inch model, which was only ever introduced in a thin casing, bears remnants of the older, thicker design.

And perhaps even this design is not final.

“Product design and specifications are subject to change without notice or obligation,” reads a sign next to the product.

The revamped tablets weren’t the only interesting thing at the Samsung booth, however. Other products include the Galaxy S II, a thinner, dual-core successor to the Galaxy S. That product was introduced at Mobile World Congress but has yet to hit the United States. Also on display was the Nexus S 4G, a CDMA version of the Gingerbread phone that is headed to Sprint’s network complete with Google Voice integration.

Two of the devices at the booth weren’t phones at all, at least not in the traditional sense. The Galaxy S Wi-Fi models are to the Galaxy S line of smartphones what the iPod Touch is to the iPhone. Although they don’t have a cellular module, the products are capable of making calls over Wi-Fi using voice-over-Internet services.

Samsung has already shipped a similar product, known as the Galaxy Player, in Korea. The U.S. models are due to ship in May and come in 4-inch and 5-inch screen models.