Samsung’s Galaxy S II remains one of our favorite smartphones here at Android Community, and with sales passing 3m worldwide in the first 55 days of availability, its absence from the US market is increasingly frustrating. According to a new report from Korea, however, that may not change any time soon; Chosun Ilbo claims that US carriers like Verizon are dismissing the Galaxy S II because Samsung’s CDMA expertise lags behind that of Motorola and others.
According to the paper, Motorola “makes phones that work best with the American mobile protocol CDMA. That means US telecoms have a better alternative.” Although the Galaxy S was the best selling Android device in the US at one point in 2010, carriers are supposedly less inclined to pick up its successor because HTC and Motorola are offering more compelling CDMA options now.
“When the Galaxy S smartphone was launched last year, no competing new models by Motorola and HTC were available” the paper suggests. “As far as US telecoms were concerned, the Galaxy S was the only alternative to the iPhone last year. But the new model faces much tougher competition”
Samsung has not confirmed the rumors, but an unnamed executive from the company did admit that “negotiations with American telecom companies have dragged on” while European sales flourish and the Canadian carriers are gung-ho about the handset.
[via GottaBeMobile]
That is such BULLSHIT! I don’t recall Motorola pushing out an LTE phone on Android yet — do you? Samsung DROID CHARGE = LTE. +1 for Samsung 0 for Motorola.
Or maybe it has more to do with the number of dissatisfied customers they have ended up with due to slow software updates on the original Galaxy S line.
Due to Samsung…or US carriers?
Maybe US carriers remember the customer service firestorm that existed over the Galaxy S line with some going so far as to threaten class action suits over the absent FroYo updates. #neveragain
Some might argue that the carriers held the Galaxy S updates. Perhaps. But did you ever try running one of Samsung’s test builds? They were awful. Even the Sprint Samsung Epic 4G which ended up requiring not one, but two firmware updates to get FroYo right. On top of that, the latest Samsung CDMA devices, the Sprint Google Nexus S 4G and the Samsung Droid Charge for Verizon continue to suffer from software niggles that should not exists on a device from a “top tier” Open Handset OEM.Samsung was warned that their would be consequences from their vacating their support of the Galaxy S line in the U.S. Now, in the Galaxy S II they have a device which most likely could overcome all of the issues they had last year, but face tepid Carrier response despite pent up user demand.
How I wish that you could easily buy service and handsets separately. More expensive hadsets would be fine if the service terms were shorter or the fees lower to make up for the loss of handset subsidy. But, U.S. carriers are allergic to anything innovative, so we’ll never see opportunities like that.
Sprint didn’t get the Epic 4G until what August 31st last year, which was their Galaxy S. Seems like its getting close to release if you ask me..
That was the phone I was going to buy at my next upgrade in January too… that’s such a lame excuse, the hardware on the Galaxy S II is better then ANY US carried phone to date, being the first carrier to in the states to pick it up would be huge for them!
If this story is true then the carriers are fools. I know alot of people who are very interested in buying this phone and when we do get it here in the US, i think the iphone is dead.
Just get the phone in the US already. This is absolutely ridiculous. I am annoyed enough to just use my upgrade on another phone but damn this phone is good. AHHHH!
I smell conspiracy. US carriers are favoring Apple I guess 😛 Anyways, its a gr8 cell n everybody should get it ASAP!
If this is true, fuck you again Verizon. Verizon is turning out to be the most evil telco again. It’s like they want to win the crown back from AT&T.
This is BS. I want the Galaxy S 2 on AT&T. Carrier disinterest yeah right.
Verizon is the only provider that runs CDMA and for people travelling internationally that sucks. Do you smell that?….. its a burning iphone 5 and the carriers pushing it.
Honestly I’d be surprised if the iphone 5 specs actually outshines the Galaxy S II lol