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The launch of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4 smartphone last year was an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza, featuring a full orchestra, a Broadway cast and a tap-dancing child in a live broadcast in New York's Times Square.
But when the global smartphone leader launches its new flagship device on Monday, it is likely to be a lower-key affair, with Samsung eschewing a "standalone" event, and choosing to unveil the device at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.
The tempo of the event reflects the lower expectations investors have for the phone – expected to be called the Galaxy S5 – in part because of the reduced scope for meaningful improvements to the current range of premium smartphones, seven years after Apple launched the first iPhone.
Some analysts believe Samsung may have moved forward the launch of its new device in anticipation that Apple will launch the iPhone 6 as early as June.
The technical details of the Galaxy S5 have been the subject of extensive media speculation: it is reported to include a 16-megapixel camera and 5.2-inch screen, compared with 13 megapixels and 5 inches for the Galaxy S4.
Reports have claimed that the new handset will feature a fingerprint scanner – perhaps recognising and giving different responses to eight of a user's fingers – or that it will be waterproof, or feature a curved screen, or a casing made from metal instead of plastic.
Marcello Ahn, a fund manager at Quad Investment Management, says such improvements would increase the production cost of the phone without adding greatly to its appeal. "Any incremental improvement from the S4 to S5 will not be meaningful, and will not be worth the incremental cost rise," he said. "Investors' expectations are already lowered."
He thinks the modest interest in the new flagship phone is also a reflection that investors expect growth in smartphone sales to come increasingly from sales of more modestly priced devices in developing countries, instead of from the saturated premium market.
Investors are also conscious of the Galaxy S4's failure to meet high market expectations, although the phone comfortably broke records for the flagship series – Samsung claims that it sold 10m units within the first month after its launch last April. But this has failed to impress analysts, with Samsung shares dropping sharply in June after JPMorgan said that early sales had been significantly lower than expected.
More broadly, Samsung is under pressure to reassure investors that it can maintain the impressive growth of recent years. The company suffered its first quarterly profit decline for more than two years in the final quarter of 2013. It is resisting calls for greater payouts to shareholders, vowing to use its cash pile for investment in future growth engines.
Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight, said that Samsung had done well to make an aggressive move into the high-profile "wearables" sector, which he said was showing more potential than some analysts had expected.
Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch has been sold as a companion piece to the Galaxy Note 3 – a larger device, marketed as midway between smartphone and tablet – and the company might well launch an improved version to accompany the Galaxy S5, Mr Wood said.
"This is a critically important launch for Samsung," he added. "They'll have to do something spectacular to grab people's attention."
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