Samsung confirms it will unveil Galaxy S III mini on Thursday

As the iPhone gets bigger, the Galaxy S III is getting smaller.

Samsung has confirmed it will unveil the Galaxy S III mini with a 4-inch screen at an event in Germany on Thursday. The company told South Korean media and confirmed to The Verge that it will formally announce a shrunken version of its 4.8-inch flagship phone at the event.

JK Shin, Samsung’s head of mobile communications, said the product will first launch in Europe.

“There’s a lot of demand for a 4-inch screen device in Europe,” he said, according to The Verge. “Some call it an entry-level device, but we call it ‘mini.’”

The move comes a few weeks after Apple unveiled the iPhone 5, which increased the iPhone’s screen size rom 3.5 inches to 4 inches. In the last couple of years, the screens on Android-based smartphones have steadily been increasing beyond 4.5 inches, with the extreme being the upcoming Galaxy Note II and its 5.5-inch screen.

Though larger displays are selling points for Androids, it is also becoming more apparent that there is unmet demand for more-compact devices. Phones such as the iPhone 5 and the Motorola RAZR M are chasing that market, and it appears Samsung is finally acknowledging it as well.

The Galaxy S III has been a vast success for Samsung since it launched in late May. The phone began selling in the U.S. in June, and in August it beat out the iPhone 4S as the top-selling phone in the U.S.

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