SAMSUNG LAUNCHES GALAXY S9

BARCELONA / SEOUL: Samsung Electronics co Ltd, unveiled its flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone on Sunday with an emphasis on visual applications for Social Media hoping to attract-

Tech savvy young consumers to weather a market slowdown.

With the  global smartphone  market set to stay flat or even shrink after meager growth of one percent last year, vendors are focusing on features designed to encourage consumers to ditch their old phones earlier than they would have previously.

Samsung launched the S9 at the mobile gadget fair in Barcelona, attracting thousand of reporters to see how the  world's biggest smartphone maker could innovate in a category in which the big  players are technologically closer than ever.

DJ Koh, Samsung's president of  IT and mobile communications, said the most important function of a phone today was  ''visual communication,'' and the Galaxy S9 had been designed for the  visual and social generation.

It features  improved cameras, an  artificial intelligence - powered voice tools, and social media functions that are easier to deploy than previous offerings.

New features include an  automatic slow motion camera setting that looks primed to show up on Instagram feeds soon, and software that turns selfies instant emojis.

Analyst Ben Wood from CSS Insight said the S9 and larger screen S9 Plus were all about incremental gains over the S8.

''The S9 underlines the dilemma all leading  smartphone makers are facing. Innovation in smartphones has plateaued  and now it is all about marginal gains be that screen technology, camera features and processing power,'' he said.