High demand will reportedly see a delay in getting Galaxy S4’s into some customers’ hands.
Samsung’s successor to its popular Galaxy S3 smartphone, and its new flagship, the Galaxy S4, launched officially yesterday, but some US carriers have reportedly said they would sell the phone later than expected.
Meanwhile UK suppliers have been hit by supply issues due to high demand, according to Samsung, with some hoping the delay won’t last past next week.
Samsung said initial supplies of the device may be limited to “overwhelming global demand”, and that it expected to fulfil inventory to meet demands in the coming weeks.
US suppliers affected included Sprint, which would sell the device this weekend as planned, and AT&T and T-Mobile, the former not stocking the device until the end of May and the latter taking pre-orders from the April 29, the Guardian said.
Delays at home
Closer to home, Everything Everywhere said it has seen huge demand for the S4, but had received fewer devices than anticipated.
“We’re currently prioritising pre-order customers on a first-come, first-served basis, and we’re working with Samsung to fulfil all remaining pre-orders as swiftly as possible.”
What Mobile understands that outstanding pre-orders should be cleared by early next week, however.
Carphone Warehouse said it had seen “huge” customer interest in the device and it was working hard to ensure it fulfilled as many pre-orders for the handset as possible.
“We will ensure that every customer impacted by any supply issues is contacted and informed of the likely delivery of their new handset.”
Three said due to Samsung’s stock issues, it was unable to deliver the handset to all customers who had pre-ordered it.
“We’re working closely with Samsung to do everything we can to get the S4 to our customers as soon as it’s available.”
Phones 4u said Samsung had told it the device would be in short supply across the launch weekend due to “unprecedented demand”. The retailer’s priority was its pre-order customers and it would use current stock to fulfil these first, it said, before going into stores.
“Our first delivery will go out to those pre-order customers as expected at launch, but there may be a delay to some customers who have pre-ordered their Galaxy S4 more recently”.
The retailer expected handsets to be in store next week, but could not confirm an exact date at this point, it said.
Vodafone said it had sent out devices to pre-order customers, but that it too did not have enough devices to cover all pre-orders.
It was working with the manufacturer to get more devices as soon as possible, and was letting customers know the situation in the meantime.
O2 said some customers who had pre-ordered their handset before April 19 would get their device on April 26 and would receive a text to let them know. Customers who had ordered their handset before April 19 and hadn’t received it today, would receive the handsets from tomorrow.
