This time of the year is always filled with rumors and announcements, but nary an actual big product launch. The yearly Consumer Electronics Show in January and Mobile World Congress in February are the two big mobile trade shows, and while many announcements tend to happen there, some of the biggest happen at their own events instead. Ever since the Galaxy S III Samsung has been announcing its big phones at its own events, normally called Samsung Unpacked, and these events are usually held on their own time without reference to any trade show or other big event. This year might prove different if Eldar Murtazin, a rather acclaimed industry veteran, turns out to be right. Just two days ago he Tweeted that Samsung would be announcing the Galaxy S5 on February 23rd, with a launch at the end of April. That would put the announcement and product release extremely far apart; nearly two months, which is not like Samsung’s previous phones at all. We saw this sort of release schedule last year with the HTC One when HTC tried to one-up Samsung by announcing their phone first, only to end up releasing it about a week after the Galaxy S4. This led to obvious frustration by users, and that’s never something you want to try to do as a company.
Now Eldar Murtazin has sent out another Tweet clarifying the information he has received, saying he’s received an invitation from Samsung for an event on the closing day of the Olympics, which just so happens to be that same February 23rd date. Given that Samsung is an official sponsor of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics it’s not surprising to see that they’re holding an event at the end of the games, but whether or not they’ll actually announce the Galaxy S5 there is another story. We’ve seen plenty of info suggesting that they’ll hold a mid-March event in London much like was held last year for the Galaxy S4, and that feels more likely if the release date does end up happening some time in April. We’ve of course seen plenty of other rumors and information about the Galaxy S5 recently, including a significant upgrade to the camera sensor as well as the hovering touch portion of the screen. Then of course there’s a new TouchWiz interface that has needed an overhaul for years now, including a possible Samsung version of Google Now. Big things are in store for Samsung either way, and we’ll find out in the very near future how much of this actually comes to fruition.