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Samsung’s Galaxy S II named best smartphone in the world, and Samsung is just getting started

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 7:49PM EST
BGR

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This year’s Mobile World Congress is now behind us. And it was quite a show. Android phones got a bump to four cores, camera phones got a bump to 41 megapixels, and reporters and bloggers were run ragged as the wireless industry gave us a glimpse at the stars of their respective portfolios for the first half of 2012. The highlight of the show for us was definitely Microsoft taking the wraps off its Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and our favorite smartphones introduced at the show were HTC’s ultra-sleek One X and its ultra-slim One S. But Mobile World Congress isn’t all about looking forward, it’s also about looking back at some of the mobile technology that has changed our lives in recent history. With that in mind, the GSMA handed out its Global Mobile Awards for 2012 earlier this week. Read on for more.

A number of top companies received honors at this year’s awards. Nokia’s C3-00 won best feature phone of the year, Apple’s iPad 2 won best mobile tablet, Google Maps for Android was named best consumer mobile service, WhatsApp was named best overall mobile app of the year and Rovio’s Angry Birds Rio was named best mobile app for consumers.

Top honors, however, went to Samsung this year as the South Korea-based consumer electronics giant took home awards for best device manufacturer of the year and for best smartphone thanks to its wildly popular Galaxy S II series of handsets.

“We are pleased to receive this honor from GSMA and believe that it’s a testament to Samsung’s innovation, quality products, and attention to consumer preferences,” Samsung’s mobile boss JK Shin said in response to the awards. “We sold over 97 million smartphones in 2011, demonstrating that this is the right approach.”

The Galaxy S II was undoubtedly an iconic smartphone that sent Samsung’s smartphone business soaring in 2011, but the company is hardly done leading the pack. The world’s top Android vendor is expected to launch its next-generation Galaxy S III smartphone in April and according to an exclusive report from BGR earlier this week, Samsung has no plans to slow down in 2012.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.