Samsung Crafts 'Matrix' Phone

Samsung Electronics has landed a deal with AOL Time Warner unit Warner Bros. Pictures to provide a cell phone that will be used in The Matrix Reloaded, the sequel to 1999's The Matrix movie, a spokesperson confirmed.

Little is known about Samsung's Matrix phone except for a teaser Web site. The Web site invites Matrix fans or Samsung aficionados to sign up for e-mail updates. A Flash animation communicates "15 May 2003" and "Samsung" to viewers, before providing a brief flash of the handset. The date corresponds to the date of the movie's planned premiere.

A company spokesperson confirms Samsung has reached a "certain agreement" with Warner Bros. but declined to provide more information ahead of an official announcement.

Boost by Cinema

The deal gives Samsung a high-profile platform from which to promote its cellular telephones. The most exotic of those include video-camera phones introduced this year, and combo PDA phones unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

A Matrix-inspired sales jump could help the company reach its goal of selling 20 percent more cellular handsets in 2003 than it did last year. Samsung officials have set a shipment target of between 50 million and 52 million for the current year, against 42 million last year. The company has said it will particularly emphasize sales in overseas markets.

Samsung would not be the first handset maker to benefit from a Matrix association. Nokia's 8110 handset became a must-have item for some after it was featured in the last Matrix movie and even sparked a small business in "Matrix-style sliding covers," which third-party vendors were offering to replace the faceplates on other Nokia models.

Samsung became the number three cellular handset maker in the third quarter of 2002, according to the most recent estimates from market research company Dataquest. During that three-month period, Samsung sold 11.1 million handsets to place it behind Nokia and Motorola and ahead of Siemens and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.