Google has been enjoying success with their Android OS as of late. With their annual I/O conference coming in the next few weeks, new devices are already hitting the shelves to compete against one another, but also, against the iPhone. Samsung has already been on the ball by releasing two new phones in the last month: the Galaxy Mega and the new Galaxy S 4. With the GSIV, it looks to compete against the HTC One. With the way these two smartphones are set up, it will be one interesting battle.

Let’s look at some of the facts. The One stands at 4.7″ and the GS4 at 5″, both with 2GB of RAM, quad-core processors.

HTC One – Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600 1.7GHz
Samsung Galaxy S 4 – Qualcomm® MDM9215™ + APQ8064™ 1.9GHz

The One comes with either 32GB or 64GB and the Galaxy S 4 comes only in 16GB with an expandable microSD slot that runs up to 64GB.

Both of them have full HD screens (1920×1080), LTE where available, quality cameras, the latest version of Jelly Bean (4.2.2.) and the latest tech in WiFi and Bluetooth. Aside some differences by each manufacturer, the two phones should be great choices for anyone looking to upgrade anytime soon.

The big question, though, is how will Apple respond? It seems they’re already in development of a new device coming later this year. When that is is still a mystery, as multiple, conflicting reports indicate a release date of the new iPhone to be between as early as July and as late as September. What will it have? In order to compete with HTC and Samsung (and possibly Motorola and LG), they need to make a change. Re-designing iOS might not be the worst thing in the world to do right now. After all, the same design has stuck around for the last 6 years while Android continually updates their OS. Plus, it helps that it’s fully customizable out of the box.

Whatever Apple decides to do, it needs to set the standard of what Samsung has managed to take away from them. Last year, the Galaxy S 3 was the top phone of 2012 worldwide. Even though it had a 3 or 4 month head start before the iPhone 5 was released, Samsung continued with releasing the Galaxy Note 2. And it doesn’t seem like they are willing to stop anytime soon.

With that, it also begs the question: have bigger smartphones become the norm? The demand says it might be time. Although you can make the legitimate argument that not everyone likes bigger phones just much as some not liking smaller phones. The point is it’s all about choice. The one size fits all deal has changed. If you’re an Android developer, this may not be the easiest thing to deal with. Some Android developers already have a tough time trying to create apps to be compatible with all different sizes of Android, and there are plenty of varying ones, especially when you count tablets.

The One, Galaxy S 4 and “iPhone 5S” will establish the new breed of phones for 2013. Now the question is, who will reign supreme at the end of it? Will Samsung take the gold again? Or will Apple make a statement and try to re-take what was previously theirs? Or will LG and Google release a new Nexus to enter their name into the race? Maybe Motorola might develop something interesting with the new X Phone. The smartphone wars of 2013 will definitely be a sight to see. Best of luck to all contenders.