Samsung Galaxy S5 goes on sale early in South Korea

PanARMENIAN.Net - Samsung Electronics Co. failed to keep its new Galaxy S5 smartphone from going on sale early in South Korea today (March 27) as SK Telecom Co. and other carriers try to work around penalties imposed by the national regulator, Bloomberg reported.

The world’s largest mobile phone maker planned to release the phone on April 11, yet that date would be in the middle of state-imposed suspensions preventing SK and KT Corp. from doing business. LG Uplus Corp.’s suspensions surround that date.

Samsung is getting drawn into a battle among Korean carriers for users, with illegal discounts prompting the government regulator to limit their ability to sign up new customers for 45 days. Samsung is counting on the marquee device to maintain its lead in a global smartphone market where it competes with Apple Inc. for high-end shoppers and Chinese producers including Xiaomi Corp. target budget buyers.

“We are very puzzled,” Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in an e-mailed statement. “SK Telecom strongly asked for an earlier release of the product but we delivered our stance that the global release date of April 11 remains unchanged.”

Consumers can start buying the Galaxy S5 for 866,800 won ($808) from SK Telecom’s 3,000 retail stores and website from today, South Korea’s largest carrier said in an e-mailed statement. Existing customers of KT and LG Uplus can purchase the device under certain conditions, the companies said.

Samsung unveiled the S5 at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress in February, choosing a more low-key stage for the device than it did a year earlier with the S4’s gala at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. The company sells one of every four mobile phones in the world.