Supply shortages delay Samsung Galaxy S4 launch at Sprint, T-Mobile
Limited availability of Samsung's new flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone has led to delayed launches at Sprint and T-Mobile, the third- and fourth-largest carriers in the U.S.
Unaffected by the shortage is AT&T, which still plans to begin offering the Galaxy S4 at its stores this Saturday, according to Reuters. But it's likely that inventory could be limited in the face of anticipated strong demand, and Samsung said in a statement that it hopes to fulfill inventory in the "coming weeks."
For its part, T-Mobile characterized the supply issues as an "unexpected delay with inventories." The carrier was clearly caught somewhat off-guard by the supply issues, as it didn't comment on the matter or delay the launch until the day the carrier was supposed to begin accepting preorders.
T-Mobile originally expected to begin accepting preorders on Wednesday, but has instead pushed its onsale date to next Monday, April 29.
As for Sprint, the carrier will begin accepting online orders Saturday, as was originally planned. But "unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung" will "slightly" delay its full product launch.
Sprint plans to sell inventory in its stores as it receives units. Samsung cited demand for the Galaxy S4 that is "far stronger" than the South Korean electronics company had expected.
Meanwhile Verizon, the largest carrier in the U.S., began accepting preorders for the Galaxy S4 today. The handset will become available at the carrier's retail stores on May 30, more than a month from now.
Samsung announced the Galaxy S4 at an elaborate media event at New York City's Radio City Music Hall in mid-March. The handset is Samsung's latest flagship phone, designed to take on Apple's best-selling iPhone 5.
While Apple frequently sees product shortages at launch, the Cupertino, Calif., company typically makes its new iPhone models available for sale in major markets like the U.S. just over a week after the product is announced. That stands in contrast to the Galaxy S4 debut, which has now been dragged out over a month and still faces production issues.
Samsung had originally planned a massive global launch for the Galaxy S4, saying it would be available in more than 150 countries by the end of April. It's unclear if those plans have changed with the company's apparent production issues.
Reviewers who have been able to use the Galaxy S4 have given the handset mostly positive marks, though it's not viewed as a revolutionary smartphone. Early takes have also criticized the fact that the phone has an "easy mode" that allows users to bypass the complexity of its heavily modified Android operating system.
Unaffected by the shortage is AT&T, which still plans to begin offering the Galaxy S4 at its stores this Saturday, according to Reuters. But it's likely that inventory could be limited in the face of anticipated strong demand, and Samsung said in a statement that it hopes to fulfill inventory in the "coming weeks."
For its part, T-Mobile characterized the supply issues as an "unexpected delay with inventories." The carrier was clearly caught somewhat off-guard by the supply issues, as it didn't comment on the matter or delay the launch until the day the carrier was supposed to begin accepting preorders.
T-Mobile originally expected to begin accepting preorders on Wednesday, but has instead pushed its onsale date to next Monday, April 29.
As for Sprint, the carrier will begin accepting online orders Saturday, as was originally planned. But "unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung" will "slightly" delay its full product launch.
Sprint plans to sell inventory in its stores as it receives units. Samsung cited demand for the Galaxy S4 that is "far stronger" than the South Korean electronics company had expected.
Meanwhile Verizon, the largest carrier in the U.S., began accepting preorders for the Galaxy S4 today. The handset will become available at the carrier's retail stores on May 30, more than a month from now.
Samsung announced the Galaxy S4 at an elaborate media event at New York City's Radio City Music Hall in mid-March. The handset is Samsung's latest flagship phone, designed to take on Apple's best-selling iPhone 5.
While Apple frequently sees product shortages at launch, the Cupertino, Calif., company typically makes its new iPhone models available for sale in major markets like the U.S. just over a week after the product is announced. That stands in contrast to the Galaxy S4 debut, which has now been dragged out over a month and still faces production issues.
Samsung had originally planned a massive global launch for the Galaxy S4, saying it would be available in more than 150 countries by the end of April. It's unclear if those plans have changed with the company's apparent production issues.
Reviewers who have been able to use the Galaxy S4 have given the handset mostly positive marks, though it's not viewed as a revolutionary smartphone. Early takes have also criticized the fact that the phone has an "easy mode" that allows users to bypass the complexity of its heavily modified Android operating system.
Comments
Samsung is DOOOOOOMED....
Oh, wait, it not Apple. Samsung is so popular there are shortages! Buy, Buy, BUY!
So they've purposely created shortages to make it appear as if the phone is selling really well.
That might make sense if it they were selling it already.
hmm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dasanman69
That might make sense if it they were selling it already.
That is the way Samsung is spinning it.
samsunginsider?
But isn't that just what Apple does.
Copycats
Off with his head.
Maybe, but that seems unlikely. Samsung is a highly popular Android maker. The Galaxy S line of products are very popular for Android and for the mid- to high-range category. The S III was highly successful. I would imagine the S4 will also sell like gangbusters and I don't think the build quality and feel of the device is that important to their customer base of the previous Galaxy models wouldn't have been so popular.
Aren't they? Not to end users but with an impending launch date one day away they'd had to have sold them to their retailers by now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boriscleto
Samsung is DOOOOOOMED....
Oh, wait, it not Apple. Samsung is so popular there are shortages! Buy, Buy, BUY!
It's not that Samsung is so popular. They just didn't make enough to meet demand, whatever THAT means.
Maybe they have demand for 3 million units and they only made 2 million units.
When they post these articles, it would be nice to find out how many units they initially made and what the demand was, but we'll never get that information.
Some of these companies purposely don't make many units to begin with, because if they sell out early, it makes people think it's an in demand product to get people to want it more.
I know Microsoft was doing that with the Surface tablets, so they could boast about how they sold out, but reality was is that they just made a small number of units to guarantee them selling out. Apple, at least, makes more for the first weekend than the previous model and their first weekend sales are usually impressive, even if they do sell out, at least they are able to have lines at all of their retail store locations for the first couple of weeks when they launch a new iPhone/iPad.
It's better for a company to sell out in the first week than to have surplus. it just makes for a more impressive launch. If they sell out quickly, people think that it's a popular product, when in fact, it might not be. Have to watch Samsung, Microsoft and others for this tactic, they abuse it more than Apple from what I've noticed.
So they've purposely created shortages to make it appear as if the phone is selling really well.
This is highly unlikely. I have it from good sources that there is a world wide shortage of plastic and they can not make enough housings to keep the innards in.That isn't likely to happen. Think of it like your health. You diagnosis the symptoms to determine the problem but the symptoms alone oft don't tell much more than there is a problem somewhere. I think the same thing happens with supply and demand. The retailers buying the product know they can't get it when they want it but it doesn't tell you if that is because of too much demand elsewhere, poor assumptions on demand from the vendor, bad batches of product, or some other issue altogether.
As another sign of Samsung's high-profile in smartphones for at least the time-being: CompareMyMobile is seeing trade-in value requests for the S3 increased over 125% since the release date for the Galaxy S4 was announced. According to them only Apple announcements for new iPhone models has ever prompted similar increases.
http://infogr.am/The-Unique-Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Trade-in-impact
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gatorguy
As another sign of Samsung's high-profile in smartphones for at least the time-being: CompareMyMobile is seeing trade-in value requests for the S3 increased over 125% since the release date for the Galaxy S4 was announced. According to them only Apple announcements for new iPhone models has ever prompted similar increases.
http://infogr.am/The-Unique-Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Trade-in-impact
The ignorants that bought the S3 don't use the net that much, so they are still ignorants and bought the s4.
The comments here about creating fake shortages make no sense from a real life point of view.
If someone is in the market for a high end Android phone, there are some good choices right now.
The last thing that Samsung wants to happen at this point in time, is to not be able to supply enough units to meet demand... and perhaps lose potential customers to HTC or elsewhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KDarling
The comments here about creating fake shortages make no sense from a real life point of view.
If someone is in the market for a high end Android phone, there are some good choices right now.
The last thing that Samsung wants to happen at this point in time, is to not be able to supply enough units to meet demand... and perhaps lose potential customers to HTC or elsewhere.
HTC can't produce them either.
There's no one else with Buzz right now. The brainwashe has been done. There's no reviewer that says that this phone is the best android phone or close to it, not to mention the fact that it is so much inferior to the iphone, but stupid people don't care. For them, this is like walking with their pants down.
I think they are trying to create a HYPE that this phone is so popular that it is running short .... even before it goes on sale...... Something only Samsung would be stupid enough to do.
JAT>
en
Quote:
Originally Posted by drblank
It's not that Samsung is so popular. They just didn't make enough to meet demand, whatever THAT means.
AT&T just reported that 80% of their smartphone activations were iPhones. So that portends a huge demand for the S4 that cannot be met? I don't get it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pedromartins
HTC can't produce them either.
There's no one else with Buzz right now. The brainwashe has been done. There's no reviewer that says that this phone is the best android phone or close to it, not to mention the fact that it is so much inferior to the iphone, but stupid people don't care. For them, this is like walking with their pants down.
Android cultists like to claim that only stupid people buy Apple products. Let's not get in the gutter with them and claim only stupid people buy Android. Only stupid people do that. ¡