Samsung Galaxy S III Could be Back on for MWC
The Samsung Galaxy S II was one of the few smartphones to challenge the iPhone 4, and now its sequel is giving the iPhone 5 a run for its money in the release rumour stakes too.
Like the iPhone 5, the Galaxy S III has at least two potential release windows, and conflicting rumours point to both.
Here’s some background. The Galaxy S II was announced during Mobile World Congress 2011, making it only a short leap to assume the Galaxy S III would be coming during the 2012 show. The rumours more-or-less backed this up, and we all settled back to wait for some quad-core Galaxy goodness in late February.
But then, a rumour saying Samsung was having second thoughts about releasing the phone at the show appeared, all due to the lengthy approval process the device needs to go through to make it to the USA. The Galaxy S II didn’t appear there until September 2011, presumably causing worry for Samsung’s bean-counters should it happen again.
Instead of telling the US networks to hurry it along, the launch was said to have been delayed until summer, when all the marketing and promotion could be done at the same time. A sensible and financially sound decision, but one driven by the power carriers have over the market in the USA.
Now here’s the latest: Samsung is ‘still reviewing’ the plan for MWC and the launch of the Galaxy S III, according to a Samsung executive answering a question during an earnings call. This means two things – that a Samsung exec has accidentally confirmed the Galaxy S III, and that it could still be there at Mobile World Congress.
We wonder how many more times this rumour will flip-flop between now and 27 February.