Earlier this month Samsung announced that they would not be showing off the Samsung Galaxy S III at Mobile World Congress. Their reasoning was that it doesn’t make sense to announce a device so early in the year when it’s due to hit store shelves during the end of the second quarter. Some of you guys freaked out, but we tried to remind you of what happened in 2011: Samsung announced the Galaxy S II in February, it hit Europe in May, and then it finally launched in America during the fourth quarter. Rumors suggest that the Galaxy S III will follow the same timeline, launching in Europe in May, and then hitting America a few months later. If that’s the case, then when will Samsung hold an event to announce this new flagship device?
The folks at FrAndroid, short for French Android, have just announced that they’ve received an invitation to a Samsung event scheduled for the 22nd of March. That’s barely more than three weeks after the end of Mobile World Congress. It’s enough time for Samsung to distance themselves from the flood of news expected at MWC, but still … three weeks? In a perfect world every company would announce a new product and then say it’s available for ordering that very same day, but we understand how difficult that be to coordinate from a pure logistical standpoint. Assuming the May launch date for the Galaxy S III is real, then two months between announcement and availability is acceptable. To use Nokia as a comparison, they announced the Lumia 800 at Nokia World on October 26th and then started selling the device in several European markets on the 15th of November. That’s the kind of execution we’d like to see from Samsung.
Is that too much to ask for?