We’ve been bringing you all the official news on the Galaxy S3 (S III) after the big Samsung announcement and now that the initial buzz is starting to die down we’re starting to think about some of the wider implications, such as for US customers. It seems pretty certain to us that there will be a fair amount of dismay as the US Galaxy S3 will be last to the party… again.
We say again because as US consumers will no doubt remember, exactly the same thing happened with the Galaxy S2 release last year. The Galaxy S3 is a massively awaited smartphone by potential owners across the globe and at the announcement on Thursday we heard that it would release in the UK and the rest of Europe at the end of May, so just a few more weeks to wait. However regarding the US market Samsung merely said that it would release later in the summer, a pretty vague time frame and one that we think will have many US customers frustrated.
Now that the official specs are confirmed it seems that the European variant will have a quad-core processor while the US variants are likely to be dual-core but will have LTE connectivity. We also told how as well as an LTE version for the US there will be an HSPA+ model so when the Galaxy S3 eventually heads stateside it could theoretically be available on the Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile networks, as well as Sprint in theory if it gets its own LTE network up and running.
The fact that it could be available on all of the major carriers in the US will please many customers wondering if their carriers would take up the Galaxy S3. However the news of a release delay for the US may well counter any positive feelings. This is particularly relevant as Samsung is well aware of the negativity that occurred last year when the Galaxy S2 release in the US was several months after it had been released in other parts of the world. The long wait for the flagship Samsung phone caused a huge amount of consternation and annoyance and the longer the wait the more people gave up and purchased a different smartphone instead.
Most of us expected that Samsung would avoid that same scenario again this year especially as there were plenty of reports with sources suggesting that this time around the new Galaxy S phone would be released simultaneously across the globe in 50 markets or cities. Phone buyers and enthusiasts in the US then, could be forgiven for feeling that once again they seem to have been placed at the back of the queue. In an article yesterday we told how the Galaxy S3 could be competition for Apple’s iPhone 5 especially as it could have a head start on sales but we don’t yet know if the iPhone 5 will release in summer or fall. Either way we feel it would have made more sense for Samsung to release the Galaxy S3 in the US in May to make the most of that head start. Although a Samsung page for US customers to register an interest in the Galaxy S3 is available, we can’t imagine that’s going to give many people an awful lot of consolation.
We’d really like to hear from you about Samsung’s failure to release the Galaxy S3 across the world at the same time. Are you a US customer who wanted to get your hands on it at the same time as everyone else? Will you hang on for the Galaxy S3 release later in the summer or could your head be turned by another new smartphone instead? Maybe you feel let down by Samsung? Let us know by sending us your comments as we always appreciate them.
