Will the Samsung Galaxy S Arrive at All Major US Carriers by End of Year?
It was first believed the Samsung Galaxy S might end up as an AT&T exclusive. A filing with the Bluetooth SIG, however, suggested that the phone may be appearing on T-Mobile as well. Now there is speculation arising that the Galaxy S will make its way to the big four US carriers by the end of the year. Broadpoint.AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie stated recently that it could be on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint by the end of June, and follow on Verizon at a later point in the year.
McKechnie, who based his prediction on word from internal sources at both Samsung and the major carriers, sees this as either a sign that the Galaxy S was not appealing enough to carry the weight of an exclusive on any network or that Samsung believes they have a phone with such appeal that they want it to be available to the most consumers possible. Samsung has yet to release a truly great Android device, or even make a huge splash in the smartphone market for that matter (though they rank second as the global supplier of cell phones), so they could be banking on the Galaxy S to be a break-out device.
Take this as industry speculation with only minimal evidence to support it, but the move may make sense during a summer dominated by handsets that could easily overshadow the Galaxy S. With the iPhone 4/HD and HTC EVO 4G seeing a release during the same period, having their latest smartphone on as many networks as possible may be the best way for Samsung to get their phone noticed. If this is the case, the Samsung Galaxy S should be a pretty strong contender as the rallying point for their smartphone market share.
[via Forbes]