South Korean carriers start selling Samsung Galaxy S5 early due to April sales bans

The Samsung Galaxy S5 isn’t set to launch for another two weeks, but that isn’t stopping South Korean carriers from selling the device. Allegedly, the carriers are selling the flagships against Samsung’s will before the launch even happens. This is the carrier’s way of avoiding the upcoming April ban, making some money and some customers happy.

Due to some carriers breaking the law in South Korea and providing too big of a subsidy for some smartphones, the government has initiated a ban on selling devices to new customers for many of the carriers for the entire month of April. Though this is not a terrible punishment for the carriers, device manufacturers will take serious hits to their profits. Samsung is launching the Galaxy S5 April 11th, and if it can’t sell devices for almost 20 days in its own home country, profits will hurt. And customers lose as well, so the punishment is entirely ridiculous.

To get around this ban, the carriers have begun selling the Galaxy S5 early. This will provide the carrier and Samsung with profits and users with the device instead of having them wait over a month. Samsung has this to say:

The official global launch date of the Galaxy S5 is April 11, as previously announced. Samsung has provided mobile carriers with a limited number of units for marketing and pre-sales activities, however the decision to release the device early in the Korean market was made by the mobile carrier itself, independently of Samsung. We express our regret at this decision and we are working to verify all the facts.Samsung

Now, we find it hard to believe that Samsung doesn’t approve of this. Maybe the company is behind the whole thing. And seriously, we wouldn’t blame them. Share your conspiracy theories in the comments below, and have some fun with them.

source: androidandme