14 DAY TRIAL // There are roughly two weeks left until South Korean tech giant Samsung will bring to the market its latest Android-based flagship handset, namely the Galaxy S5, and it appears that it is still facing a series of production issues with it.
Apparently, the company might not have more than 4 or 5 million Galaxy S5 units ready for the big, worldwide launch, which could actually result in delays in some areas of the world.
Samsung reportedly aimed at having around 7 million Galaxy S5 devices ready for the release, but said that production issues prevented it from achieving this purpose.
According to some of the previous reports on the matter, the vendor ran into trouble when it came to the production of camera modules for the smartphone, with low yield seen due to a defective molding technology.
However, it appears that these issues have been resolved in the meantime, and that the production of the 16 MP ISOCELL camera, which features complex 6-elements optics, has ramped up, as gforgames notes.
Even so, the production problems did not go away, as Samsung is currently seeing issues with both the lens module and the coating process. The latter is said to be unstable.
Samsung did not offer a confirmation on said issues, but the fact that it actually scheduled the phone’s official release one month and a half after the launch might suggest that these problems are real.
Moreover, the company said today that it did not agree to release Galaxy S5 in South Korea earlier than initially planned, despite the fact that local carrier SK Telecom insisted on it.
The carrier won’t be able to sell the phone once it arrives on shelves on April 11, and will have to wait until May 19 to be able to add it to its offering. Apparently, Samsung is willing to wait for that day instead of releasing the phone earlier in the country.
Previous Galaxy S models have seen impressive demand all around the world, with tens of millions of units sold in the first days/weeks of availability, and the same is expected to happen with the new Galaxy S5 as well.
However, provided that the reports on said production issues are accurate, it remains to be seen whether Samsung will be able to meet demand for the device right from the start. The company is planning on making the Galaxy S5 available for purchase in 150 countries worldwide on April 11.