Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ were unveiled in a grand way on Wednesday, and are set to go on sale on April 21. Samsung Mobile CEO DJ Koh has refuted all claims of shortage in supply, and has confirmed that the initial Galaxy S8 inventory will meet the market demand.
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the New York event, Koh claims that Samsung has "doubled the initial stock of the Galaxy S8 compared to the S7 to prevent a bottleneck in early sales and as a show of confidence." ZDNet reports that Koh wanted to do away with all supply issues that Samsung had encountered with its previous smartphone launches, and didn’t want to repeat the same for Galaxy S8. Just to recap, initial stock of the Galaxy S6 Edge was limited due to display supply issues two years ago.
Samsung Galaxy S8 vs Samsung Galaxy S8+
"We are preparing more than double the initial stock compared to the Galaxy S7 and there will be no [supply problem] from when sales begin in April to the end of the first half. We faced trial and error to make the top and bottom bezel-less in design after having the left and right edge. We ramped up the yield rate [of the display] and have resolved all production process problems," Koh told the press.
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Just ahead of launch, there were reports that Samsung was having supply issues due to sluggish supply of Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895 chips. However, Koh refutes these claims and says that Samsung is ready with double the initial stock than last year. Koh also recalls last year’s Galaxy Note 7 fiasco and tells PCMag, "It was like heaven to hell, and I didn't want to stay in hell too long."
Samsung Galaxy S8 Launch: Gear 360 Spherical VR Camera Gets a Refresh
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are up for pre-order, and customers who pre-order are entitled to a free Gear VR with Touch controller. Alongside, Samsung has also made available a promo ‘gift box’ that you can buy for $99. This box includes a Gear VR, a pair of AKG Bluetooth headphones (Y50BT), and a 256GB microSD card. Just to put things into perspective, the AKG headphones are priced at $150 (roughly Rs. 9,700), the microSD card is for $250 (roughly Rs. 16,200), and the Gear VR is for $130 (roughly Rs. 8,300). So, all in all, accessories worth $530 (roughly Rs. 34,300), can be bought off for just $99 (roughly Rs. 6,400), if you choose to pre-order. This offer is applicable till April 20.
In this week's episode of Orbital, we talk about whether the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ can be the smash hits Samsung needs. You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS, or just hit the play button below.
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