According to an earlier report, it was suggested that Samsung could be thinking about launching the Galaxy S5 a bit earlier than expected in South Korea. This piece of news was originally reported by the Korea Times but unfortunately Samsung has since come forward and denied that those were indeed their plans.
According to Samsung’s co-CEO, JK Shin, “Samsung hasn’t agreed with SK Telecom for an early release of our GS5 to only SK Telecom customers.” This means that by the look of things, Samsung’s release of the Galaxy S5 could still be on track for a delayed launch in South Korea following a temporary ban by the government.
For those who haven’t been following the news, South Korea’s carriers were recently slapped with a temporary ban from selling the Galaxy S5 in their home country of South Korea. This 45-day ban was imposed by the government as a punishment to the carriers for not adhering to the rules. According to the rules, carriers are not allowed to subsidize phones below a specific price, a rule which they ignored.
Naturally when they were caught red-handed, they were served with the 45-day ban. The report that claims the Galaxy S5 could go on sale earlier was speculated so that SK Telecom could circumvent the ban, at least for a while, but it looks like that will not be happening. This will not doubt set Samsung back but given the popularity of the Galaxy S5, perhaps in the end it might not matter.
