We’ve been giving our readers as much information as possible about the new Samsung flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S3 (S III). Although this is already available in many parts of Europe and some other regions it has yet to release in the U.S. and Canada. However we are now hearing that the launch in Canada is to be delayed and we are hoping that this won’t lead to a delay in the US, which would cause a lot of frustration.
If you cast your minds back to last year and the release of the Galaxy S2 you may well remember the huge amount of controversy and upset that was caused when it took Samsung several months longer to release the phone in the US than in other regions. We had heard this year that Samsung was keen to avoid a repeat of this scenario and at first it seemed there would be a simultaneous launch of the Galaxy S3 worldwide. However at the Galaxy S3 launch event in London we heard that UK and Europe would receive the phone in May with the US simply told it would be there later in the summer.
Soon after this different release dates in June and July started to filter through for the US where it will be released on all four major carriers AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint along with U.S Cellular and C-Spire. We also heard the date of June 20 as the official confirmed launch day for Canada where it will be available on Bell, Rogers, TELUS, Virgin Mobile and more. However there has now been an official statement made by Samsung that the Canada release date for the Galaxy S3 has now been pushed back because of the huge global demand and this could obviously lead to concerns about the US releases also being delayed.
News of the Canada release delay came to us from Engadget and was supplied by Samsung Canada via Twitter along with a statement. Samsung cites “unprecedented demand” for the Galaxy S3 as the reason for the launch being put back to June 27. Samsung also states that it is ramping up production and expect any shortages to be “short lived,” so we can only hope that the US launches won’t be affected in the same way although we have no further news on that yet.
Although release dates for US carriers seem to be constantly shifting the latest dates we have are the following, courtesy of Wireless and Mobile News. AT&T has an unconfirmed date of June 18 although other reports are now saying June 21. T-Mobile and Sprint both have an official release date of June 21 (but remember the earlier Canada release date was also official). For Verizon, emails had been originally sent out saying it would be shipped for July 9 but that has since been altered to July 10. This is only a one-day difference but it may also infer shortages. Meanwhile US Cellular has merely said it will be available in July while C-Spire has announced it will be carrying the Galaxy S3 but has not given any availability date yet.
Bad news for those in Canada then as we now know that the release date there will be at least a week overdue. Let’s just hope there’s no further bad news for the many potential Galaxy S3 customers in the US and that Samsung’s talk of short-lived shortages turns out to be accurate. If you are in the US and waiting for the Galaxy S3 let us have your thoughts on the delay for Canada.
Do you imagine this could mean delays for the US as well or do you have your fingers crossed for a timely release stateside? Let us have your comments on this.
