With more than half of cellphone users in the United States and an even greater chunk in other countries owning smartphones, the release of a new device often receives a significant amount of attention from consumers, media outlets and brands interested in targeting mobile audiences.

Tech powerhouse Samsung introduced the Galaxy S4 last week at an event at New York's Radio City Music Hall during an event that Forbes called the tech equivalent of a Rockette show. The new device is stocked with snazzy new features and has a screen slightly larger than the Apple iPhone 5.

Smart Scroll and Smart Pause among most popular features
As expected of every new phone release, the Galaxy S4 is thinner and lighter than its predecessor and has an 5-inch full HD Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED) screen, which Expert Review claimed is one of the highest-density phones on the market.

One of the gadget's more intriguing features is Samsung Smart Scroll, which enables the user to scroll browsers and emails without actually touching it. It tracks facial patterns and wrist movements to move pages up and down. 

Smart Pause also uses facial recognition technology to monitor the user's expression while watching a video. If he or she turns his or her head away from the phone screen, the video pauses. It then resumes once the user turns back to the screen. This feature presents a window of opportunity for brands and publishers already investing in or considering video advertising on mobile.

What Smart Pause means for mobile video advertising 
Consumers already rely on their mobile devices for a variety of activities, including entertainment. As smartphone capabilities constantly grow more sophisticated, people are able to watch a greater variety of content for longer periods of time on the go. Meanwhile, video ads online see positive approval ratings from consumers as well as surging interest from media outlets and marketers.

Mobile users are often in a variety of environments – many of which can be distracting – when consuming video. Even for an audience member engaged in a pre-roll video ad on his or her phone, the brand is competing with his or her surroundings for attention. However, Samsung Smart Pause, and the similar features other smartphone makers are likely to create to compete with it, could give brands the reassurance they need to understand who is watching theirs ads completely, as well as when and how.