14 DAY TRIAL // Sales of Galaxy S5, Samsung’s new flagship Android-based smartphone, are said to be robust in the company’s homeland market, after it became available for purchase earlier than initially planned.
According to info coming from Yonhap News (via globalpost), Galaxy S5 is currently selling at a rate of around 7,000 units daily, which is seen as quite impressive.
At the moment, only one wireless carrier is offering the smartphone to its users, namely SK Telecom, which did not want to wait for the official launch date on April 11.
The smartphone features a price tag of 866,800 won (US$820), and is being sold without subsidies, which usually attract users a lot.
Even so, sales of the phone are robust, when compared to the average 8,000 Galaxy S4 units sold daily last year through all carriers. Galaxy S4 LTE-A, instead, clocked in at 10,000 units per day.
The most important aspect of the deal, however, is the fact that SK Telecom, which will be banned from selling new devices starting April 11, is the only carrier to be offering the phone in the country.
KT and LG U+, the other two major operators in South Korea, will be offering it starting with the next week, when Samsung officially releases the phone around the world (tough only one at a time, until May 19).
For those out of the loop, we should note that all three wireless carriers were banned from selling new devices for specific periods of time until May 19 due to the fact that they have been offering illegal subsidies to their users, in an attempt to attract as many as possible to their networks.
SK Telecom, for example, won’t be able to sell new devices with April 5 (until May 19), which means that it was bound to miss initial availability of Galaxy S5 in the country.
Thus, the carrier decided to start offering the phone earlier than initially planned, although Samsung did not agree to that. In fact, the handset vendor called the move as bring "arbitrary."
However, it seems that this is not the only disciplinary measure that was taken against South Korean wireless carriers. The Korea Communications Commission also plans on suspending the business of SK Telecom and LG U+ for 7 and 14 days, respectively, after May 19.
As Samsung announced during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Galaxy S5 is set to arrive on the market globally starting with April 11. It will be released in 150 countries out there, on the networks of multiple carriers.