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SK Telecom Launches Galaxy S5 Early Without Samsung's Permission

dgstorm

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An interesting conundrum brewed in South Korea recently. According to reports, South Korean carriers, SK Telecom, KT corp, and LG UPlus were banned by the South Korean government from signing up customers or replacing phones between April 5 to May 19. The reason for this ban was a judicial punishment because the carriers had broken several regulations regarding subsidizing handsets by more than 270,000 won ($250).

Because of this, several of these carriers were worried their sales would be hit hard for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 launch. One of the carriers, SK Telecom was trying to work out a deal with Samsung in which they could launch the Galaxy S5 early, in order to mitigate some of the impending sales ban. Unfortunately, no agreement was reached between the carrier and Samsung, and the global tech titan basically insisted that SK Telecom stick with the April 11th launch date.

In a comical turn of events, SK Telecom basically thumbed their noses at Samsung and started selling the Galaxy S5 early anyway, since they already had pre-order and launch day inventory stocked up. Here are some comments quoted below from both companies.

A Samsung spokesperson said in an emailed statement,

We are very puzzled. SK Telecom strongly asked for an earlier release of the product but we delivered our stance that the global release date of April 11 remains unchanged.”

While a SK Telecom responded with,

“We decided to release the product for a wider consumer choice of handsets before our operation suspension begins on April 5."

It remains to be seen how Samsung will react to SK Telecom's brazen behavior. In the short term you can understand why the company chose to do this. They were worried they would be hit very hard by the timing of the temporary sales ban. However, you have to wonder if their executives weren't thinking long-term. Samsung is one of the most powerful global OEMs on the planet. It's not a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you, because it can make things miserable for you down the road.

It will be interesting to see what Samsung does as punishment (if anything) to SK Telecom.

Source: Bloomberg
 
Love it when the little guy tries to take on Goliath! :D:thumbup::D

tap'n

Except in this case the giant has a very large boot to step on you with. Also, they did it to circumvent the ban on the sale of devices for something they had already done wrong. Because of their reasoning, I hope they get hit hard for it.
 
Yup. Two wrongs don't make a right and all that. Who will want to sell to them now? They've proved twice that they don't play by the rules.
 
The carriers and manufacturers are very interdependent. This move puts them both in a very precarious position in regards to eachother. Samsung may be a global powerhouse but they certainly are not holding SK Telecom over a cliff. I do wonder what, if anything, will come of this.

Perhaps they will fight like a married couple over this.

Sammy: How can you do this to me??!!

SK: How can I do this to you??! How can you do this to me?!! You know this ban is going to impact me and you won't cut me any slack!!!

Sammy: I scheduled a global release for.....!

SK: I don't care!!!! If you cared about me, you'd change that and allow me to release it early!!!!

Sammy: You piss me off!!!!! I can't believe you did this!

SK: AND I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THIS!!!!!

Sammy: You're an idiot!

SK: So are you!!

Sammy: I'm leaving and when I come back we're not going to argue about this crap anymore!! I'm over it!!

SK: Fine!!

Sammy leaves

SK: JERK!!!
 
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