Two of the major US carriers today announced they would be pushing back availability of the Samsung Galaxy S4 citing inventory challenges on Samsung’s end. First, T-Mobile late last night informed customers that it would be delaying the launch of the device until Monday, April 29th. The carrier originally planned to have the device available through its online store today. T-Mobile’s statement cited delays with “inventory deliveries,” and a press release from Sprint shortly after confirmed carriers are experiencing “unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung.”
Sprint initially planned on making the device available on April 27, but now will only be taking orders online with supplies in brick and mortar stores “as inventory becomes available.”
Sprint is excited to launch the new Samsung Galaxy 4. We had planned to launch this next generation of the award-winning Samsung Galaxy line-up on Saturday, April 27. Unfortunately, due to unexpected inventory challenges from Samsung, we will be slightly delayed with our full product launch. Sprint is one of Samsung’s largest partners and we are working closely with them to launch in all Sprint channels as soon as possible. We expect to make Galaxy S 4 available at www.sprint.com and Telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) as planned on Saturday with Sprint retail stores and other channels receiving devices as inventory becomes available.
Earlier today the unlocked variant of the Galaxy S4 found its way to eBay at a cost of $739.
As for Verizon, it had originally quoted an online release date of April 30th with shipments sometime in May and is yet to make an announcement regarding delays. The nation’s other major carrier, AT&T, is planning on making the device available in-store on April 27. You can check out 9to5Google’s full review of the Galaxy S4 here and we’ll keep you posted if there are any further announcements regarding availability.
