Gorilla Glass 3 Could Dictate Galaxy S4 Release Date

Earlier today, Corning announced its brand new Gorilla Glass 3 which will be coming to tablets and smartphones over the next year. One of those phones may very well be the Samsung Galaxy S4, and if true, it could mean that the Samsung Galaxy S4 won’t arrive until the middle part of 2013 as Gorilla Glass 3 isn’t expected to land on devices until then.

Read: Galaxy S4 Possibly Outed by Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 remains an elusive beast, existing only in rumor. So far, we’ve heard that it might be launching in February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona or even later, possibly in April.  It also has some rumored specifications that should make it a worthy successor the Galaxy S3, a device that Samsung says has been sold over 30 million times around the world.

Rumored specifications of the Galaxy S4 include a quad-core processor, 13MP camera, Android Jelly Bean or Android Key Lime Pie and a new 5-inch AMOLED display with 1080p resolution. And it’s that display that may be the feature that keeps the device out of consumers hands until the middle of the year.

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That’s because Corning just announced that its new Gorilla Glass 3 won’t be coming until mid-2013, no specific release date given. This matters because every single Galaxy S smartphone from the Galaxy S to the Galaxy S2 to the Galaxy S3 have used Corning’s Gorilla Glass to help keep the screen protected from accidents and the elements.

What this means is that Corning’s “product qualification and design implementation for Gorilla Glass 3” with its global partners could very well include Samsung and quite possibly, the Galaxy S4.

Corning says that the glass is three times harder than previous versions of the product. What’s more is that the company has added something called Native Damage Resistance, which makes the glass stand up better to scratches and cracks. It may sound like smoke and mirrors but after going hands-on with the new Gorilla Glass 3 at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, we feel like Corning is speaking the truth which could mean that Samsung will opt to include it on its flagship smartphone.

With the Galaxy Nexus, Samsung decided to exchange Gorilla Glass with un-branded fortified glass, potentially to keep cost down, and that leaves open the possibility that Samsung will opt for something else with the Galaxy S4. However, considering how impressive Gorilla Glass 3 is and considering the fact that Samsung has used Gorilla Glass with its other Galaxy S devices, it could be that it will arrive on the Galaxy S4 at some point in the middle of 2013.

Remember, just because Samsung announced the Galaxy S3 and released it in the same month doesn’t mean that it will repeat the same with the Galaxy S4. With the Galaxy S2, it announced the device at MWC 2011 in February and released it in May. With the Galaxy Note 2, it announced it in August and the last Galaxy Note 2 hit Verizon on November 29th.

And given that several high-end 1080p resolution competitors have already launched at CES with several more likely for MWC 2013, it could be that Samsung will announce the Galaxy S4 in February but won’t offer it until the middle of the year.