Samsung resolves Galaxy S III shipping delays
Caught by surprise by such wild demand for the Galaxy's newest model, the device manufacturer has had to play catch up to deliver the smartphone to suppliers.
Sprint warned last week that delivery of the Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone would be delayed because of "overwhelming demand and limited supply." Around the same time, AT&T and Amazon distributor BluTekUSA announced the same.
It appears Samsung Electronics wasn't quite prepared for the wild popularity of its mobile phone. The smartphone-maker has said it was expecting to sell more than 10 million units in the first two months of sale, according to Reuters. Delays in shipping this device may have cost the company 2 million units of sale in just one month.
The Galaxy S III went on sale on May 29 but was quickly confronted with a couple-week shortage on shipments of the "pebble blue" version of the phone. Now, the devices are finally starting to hit stores. Samsung told Reuters that the delay has been fixed and the company is now up to speed in meeting demand.
"It is simply that demand far exceeded our expectation. But that doesn't mean we had set a very conservative demand forecast," Samsung told Reuters.
The timing for the release of Samsung's newest smartphone couldn't be better since the
"Samsung might have been caught off guard by the demand, not because they did not believe in their own products, but because they might have over-estimated the competition," Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi told Reuters. "In other words, aside from the iPhone and HTC's One X, there's not much out there at the moment, which would have certainly helped Samsung."
