Samsung reveals how it kept the Galaxy S III a secret

Samsung’s official global blog has a fascinating story about the company’s research and development team and its work on the Galaxy S III. Details on the project were deliberately kept under wraps to prevent leaks that would taint the announcement of the project.

In a very Apple-like manner, the Korean manufacturer forbid its engineers to talk about the S III with their friends, family and even most of their co-workers. Only select employees worked on the project, and access to the device’s details was limited. Pictures were not allowed, and engineers had to be creative when describing the product to other departments in the company. This turned out to be a challenge with the procurement group, which had to buy materials based on the engineers’ sparse verbal descriptions.

Device security was equally as rigid. Prototypes were put in security boxes, even when engineers moved the device down the hall. The company worked concurrently on three different prototypes to confuse would-be leakers. When phones were sent out into the field for testing, they were put inside dummy cases that hid the true design of the phone.

I’m glad we were able to keep the new Galaxy S III under wraps to the end,” said WooSun Yoon(Principal Engineer, H/W R&D), “but I can’t stress enough how hard it was.”

[Via Samsung]