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Topic: Mobility

Samsung eyes 10m Galaxy S III sales during July, despite delays

Summary: Samsung --- in the face of expected U.S. border delays, and shipment supply problems --- says it expects to see more than 10 million Galaxy S III devices sold by the end of July.

Zack Whittaker

By for Between the Lines |

Samsung expects to see in the region of 10 million Galaxy S III smartphones sold by the end of July, J.K. Shin said, the company's mobile business president.

Launched in Europe on May 29, last week saw the official launch of the next-generation Galaxy smartphone in the United States.

But the world's biggest smartphone maker has a few hurdles yet to overcome, however, and it's not clear whether or not Samsung is playing it safe in the numbers game amid a series of events that have dogged the smartphone's launch.

Dubbed as your BYOD next best-friend, the Samsung Galaxy S III is designed for those bringing devices from home into the workplace. A light and thin smartphone, it's pitched at those wanting long battery life for a full day at work, and boasts a high-definition, colour-intense AMOLED display. ZDNet's Andrew Nusca has more.

But batches of shipments could be stopped at the border by U.S. Customs thanks to legal action taken by smartphone arch-rival Apple. Samsung said it would fight the block, but remains to be seen whether the smartphones will be prevented from entering the U.S. or delayed.

Plus, it seems there aren't enough Galaxy S III's to go around, according to Business Insider, which reports delays across the board in customers getting their shiny new rectangles.

Verizon has no Galaxy S III in-store launch date --- and neither does T-Mobile --- but the two phone giants say customers can order the phone online. Sprint is blaming a limited smartphone supply for its troubles, while AT&T is singing from the same hymn sheet, with an eye on launching pre-orders later today.

Reuters reports slow shipments due to the "tight supply of parts" for the device's components, such as the handset casing for the pebble-blue model.

In any case: it seems as though at this stage either Samsung's estimates are taking into account the expected border troubles and likely in-store delays, or Samsung had an even higher sales figure in mind if it wasn't facing a series of unfortunate, albeit avoidable events.

Image credit: Samsung.

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Topics: Mobility, Hardware, Samsung, Smartphones, Telcos

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5 comments
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  • Galaxy Note was a REALLY successful marginal device then

    SG3 is expected to sell 10M in July, as a resoundingly successful product.

    The Note sold 3M in March, after almost every blogger predicted it was a waste of space and anyone buying it was stupid. Since it garnered 30% in monthly sales compared to a mainstream device, it was extremely successful compared to what was expected.

    The market is moving much faster than bloggers can keep up with.
    Patanjali
    Reply Vote

    • Nah

      The Galaxy Nexus was hindered by the carriers as the LTE models had issues that Google was mostly powerless to correct thanks to the likes of Verizon and Sprint...

      Of course, AT&T never even bothered to carry the GSM model.

      The phone itself was awesome.
      slickjim
      Reply Vote

  • Is Apple the driver?

    Are the Apple lawsuits one if the drivers?

    "Get your deice before Apple gets them banned!"

    "They must be AWESOME if Apple is trying to get them banned."
    BorgX
    Reply Vote

    • Yeah they run Android 2.2

      Awesome!
      GoPower
      Reply Vote

      • No

        Android OS, v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
        daikon
        Reply Vote
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