Samsung on Tuesday acknowledged that it is unable to provide a firm release date for its Galaxy Fold smartphone and has contacted pre-order customers in the United States to apologize for the delay (via Reuters).
"If we do not hear from you and we have not shipped by May 31st, your order will be canceled automatically," the South Korean tech giant's U.S. subsidiary told Galaxy Fold pre-order customers in an email late on Monday, which was confirmed by a Samsung spokeswoman.
In a statement given to Reuters, Samsung said that U.S. regulations required the company to notify customers that pre-orders would be canceled if the product did not ship by May 31.
The South Korean company originally planned to roll out its $1,980 foldable phone on April 26, but was forced to delay the launch after several units sent out to reviewers broke during testing.
After recalling the review units, Samsung contacted pre-order customers on April 22, saying it would announce a new release date "in the coming weeks" and would take measures to strengthen the display protection. The device's screen was shown to be vulnerable to debris ingress, thanks to an iFixit teardown that was later removed at Samsung's request.
The development is the latest in a series of embarrassing events for Samsung, whose hybrid tablet/smartphone was supposed to demonstrate the company leading innovation in the mobile space. Still, at least the device in its current state won't get into the hands of thousands of customers around the world, which would likely have turned into a larger problem.
Samsung has said it plans to make at least 1 million Galaxy Fold handsets in the first year of production, compared to the total 300 million phones it produces annually on average. It originally closed pre-orders for the device early because of "high demand."
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Top Rated Comments
(View all)At least they're trying to innovate, unlike Apple shoving down the same stuff down our throats for the past few years and making us pay premium.
Innovation =/= something different to anything else on the market.At least they're trying to innovate, unlike Apple shoving down the same stuff down our throats for the past few years and making us pay premium.
History is written by the victors.Nobody remembers who did it first, only who did it best.
Somebody at the top must be preparing a powerpoint to explain his decision but it will not be enough lol..
tell that to Schiller and the touchbar. While the execution failed, I think Samsung swung for the fences, something that Apple has not done in a long time.
But the Touch Bar actually works, and people use it. It isn't the most useful thing Apple have ever done, but if we are going to use the same justification you throw out there for Samsung *At least they were trying.*At least they're trying to innovate, unlike Apple shoving down the same stuff down our throats for the past few years and making us pay premium.
This is so hypocritical...Samsung releases a 2,000 plus $ phone of which the 1,000$ is pretty much just for the folding feature, that it also doesnt have a HEADPHONE JACK (you know the absolute must have feature of 2019)!!
Everyone celebrates and justifies pricing, no headphone jack is suddenly ok, everything is rainbows and butterflies.
Said phone eventually breaks after 2 days of use and it is revealed that the damn thing has a QA standard that is laughable at best. Company decides to cancel the release until further notice with no end in sight.
Yet everyone still somehow praises the company for "innovating"... in some ridiculous way to these people innovation is releasing some crap that is far from being ready just for bragging rights...
Are you ****ing kidding me? I mean there is hypocrisy and then there is this... I cant even understand how some people have the nerve to be such hypocrites and think that no one will notice them...
I would love to be in an alternate timeline in which apple released the fold and had all these issues samsung one has. Just to witness these same people complete mental breakdown and mockery...
Hypocrites.