It even sets the bar for Apple’s next iPhone launch. Over the first weekend, the last iPhone reportedly received 4 million pre-orders. The Samsung Galaxy S III (SGS3), on the other hand, now has some 9 million handsets on pre-order. I don’t know when all the pre-ordering began (and some sites like the German Amazon started taking pre-orders even before the SGS3 was announced). But regardless, 9 million is an awful big number.
The SGS3 looks all set to go down as one of the most successful phone launches. Samsung has certainly learnt a lot from Apple, from the way hype was generated before announcement, the way the announcement itself was planned, and now the volume of pre-orders. Launch day is 9 days away. That’s for the European launch, which is on 29th May.
No one has said how early the SGS3 will be available in other countries, but considering that even Singapore’s 3 telcos has already started taking pre-orders, with one of them stating that customers will be contacted from 25th May onwards, it sounds very much earlier than later. But, presumably, not earlier than 29th May. Then, on launch day, and the subsequent weeks, it’ll be very interesting to watch how the sales of the SGS3 pans out.
The SGS3 could well be the first competitor to be in the same league as the iPhones.
In terms of all its specifications, the SGS3 seems to be a great phone. All, except, in my opinion, how it looks. I’m not sure if the design might grow on me over time.
If anyone’s out to get a new phone this season, and you’re not one of those decidedly onto the iPhone, then the SGS3 seems like a pretty good choice. Yeah, I just jumped ship back to HTC with the HTC One X, but I think if the SGS3’s price is right, it will overall make a good choice. Just, except, as I said earlier, because of its looks.
But possibly things might not be so straight forward. Google has announced that they’re going into get out some 5 different Android 5.0 phones before the end of this year. So now the question is if you should wait for the Android 5.0 phones or settle with the SGS3.
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