Already? Samsung announces Galaxy S4 announcement in February 2013

We’re no strangers to teasers that lead to an announcement of an event where a company announces a new product, but this is a bit awkward. According to The Korea Times, Samsung is already talking about a Galaxy S4 introduction at the next Mobile World Congress. In February, 2013.

It’s awkward because it doesn’t sound like it’s about Samsung. It’s about Apple and the iPhone 5 that they unveiled last week. We could be wrong, but this doesn’t look like it’s a coincidence. It reads more like “Hey! Stop it with all this iPhone 5 hype, we’ve got a new phone on the way!” While it certainly won’t stop the Apple faithful from lining up outside Apple stores, you could think of it as a semi-successful move with the way it made tech geeks look – if only for a moment – at Samsung’s latest diversion.

By the way, the first “look at me” move came immediately after the iPhone 5 introduction, when they came out with an ad that compared the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S III. (Spoiler alert, the Galaxy S III came out the winner, of course. Check out the ad below.)

It’s awkward for the Samsung (and Android) faithful too. Despite the recent legal setback against Apple regarding patents, Samsung has been doing pretty well with their Galaxy line. The stylus-supporting Galaxy Note line is pretty popular with people looking for a bigger screen, while the Galaxy S III phone packs a number of features (like NFC connectivity) that even Apple’s latest doesn’t have. Unfortunately, this latest announcement-about-an-announcement also reminds everyone on the S III fence that they’re going to unveil a new model in a few months.

According to the report, the unnamed Samsung official said that they’re already set to unveil the Galaxy IV at the MWC, and that it’s set to ship a month after (March 2013). Local part suppliers also chimed in, mentioning that it’s going to support LTE networks, run on a quad-core Exynos chip, and feature a pocket-bursting 5-inch OLED screen. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, if you’re currently thinking of buying a Galaxy S III right now, it could sound good enough to make you want to wait for the S4 instead. Sounds like a really counterproductive way to go about things.