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The blue version of the Galaxy S3 will be delayed by at least two weeks, Samsung has confirmed, following reports of manufacturing problems that resulted in Samsung throwing out over 600,000 blue cases.
“Samsung’s Galaxy S3 Pebble Blue version comes with a newly invented blue colour and special hyperglaze material,” the company said in a hard to understand statement. “In order to meet the highest internal quality standards and to provide the best quality Galaxy S3 to customers, a short supply of Pebble Blue version is expected in some regions in the next 2-3 weeks.”
What Samsung fails to explain is the reason for this delay. The blue version of the phone has seen colour issues in the manufacturing process that resulted in over half a million cases being chucked out — it’s very reminisent of the issue Apple had with its white iPhone colour problems.
Samsung, however, seems to prefer to glaze over the fact that it’s totally borked the manufacturing and instead would prefer to make it seem as though it’s doing you a favour by holding off supply of the phone so you don’t get a dodgy one. You lucky devils.
Of course, the question remains why it couldn’t have made sure they were up to standard before it put them on sale, so you wouldn’t have to wait weeks for the phone you’ve paid half a grand for. But maybe that’s just me being picky.
What it also failed to clarify is exactly what these “regions” are. Yesterday I spoke to a telecoms industry insider who explained to me that of his company’s stock of the S3, less than 5 per cent are of the blue variety, so it seems the UK is certainly one of the areas affected with “short supply”.
Thankfully the white model seems unaffected, so if you’ve placed your cash down for that one, you should still be receiving it this week. If you went for blue though, it could be mid to late June before you get your hands on one. It’s not clear whether Samsung intends to invite you to swap your blue phone for a white one to get it sooner, but I’ll make sure to keep you updated when I hear anything further.
Have you pre-ordered the blue S3? Have you already been told about the delays? Record your feelings in the comments below or over on our Facebook page.
