The Australian launch of the Galaxy S 4 last weekend wasn’t what you’d call a satisfying experience for many Australian customers, with stock shortages and some outlets only selling the device on-contract. Many consumers took the opportunity to vent their frustration at Samsung on social media.
There are still some handsets to be found, but at this stage they’re quite scarce -depending on location and your carrier of choice. In the ACT, all Optus stores were completely sold out by Sunday morning. In Sydney, Samsung’s own store (which received the lion’s share of retail units, as far as we can tell) isn’t expecting stock until tomorrow.
Samsung has released a statement on the device’s scarcity following its retail launch:
Due to the popularity of the GALAXY S4, we expect demand might exceed supply in the early stages of sale. We will, however, have a continuous supply of stock coming through over the coming weeks and encourage consumers to move quickly in placing their orders to ensure they get their hands on the GALAXY S4 as soon as possible.
The social media team at Optus, asked when stock would be in-store, couldn’t give a timeframe – instead, customers are advised to order online.
@phroghollow We don’t have this info available. Don’t want to set the expectation of stock being available in store on a certain date…
— Optus (@Optus) April 29, 2013
@phroghollow when it may be delayed. You can order online now with delivery expected in 12-15 business days. Dave
— Optus (@Optus) April 29, 2013
Samsung’s statement doesn’t jibe with what staff in stores said about the small amount of units received for such an assuredly large launch – my cynical side thinks perhaps Samsung rushed the retail launch to take the wind out of the sails of HTC as they also launched their 2013 flagship – the HTC One – last week.
For those who still want a Galaxy S 4, it appears that stock is coming – but it could be up to two weeks away, depending on when you ordered it. Will those customers wait, or begin looking at other phones? There are plenty of HTC One units available – could Samsung’s haphazard launch availability play to HTC’s benefit, after all?
Ausdroid’s Chris Rowland got his hands on a Galaxy S 4, and posted his first impressions of the device on Monday. A full review is forthcoming.
Did you get a Galaxy S 4? Are you considering purchasing another phone due to the stock shortage issues? Let us know in the comments!
I still have at least 15 devices left and just recieved more stock of white and black
TELSTRA
got to wait another 4 or 5 more days till i get my hands on the s4 which i placed an order at harvey norman
With new Play store update today, look like there might be a chance to save part of Apps on SD Card. Getting my SD Card tmr so hope it work so I don’t have to worry about the storage issue of GS4.
Only reason I ordered the S4 was because my Note2 had fatal head on collision with a concrete floor(certainly not the first time). It’s now a media player plugged into my bedroom TV.
So on Friday ordered it from mobicity was delivered on Tuesday. All in all I’m liking the phone it’s very fast and light but I will more than likely get a Note3 when they are out as I love the large screen.
Wow an S4 and a Note III within the space of 6 months? Bit of a waste don’t you think?
If I threw the S4 in the bin when I get the Note3 yeah that would be a waste. But I hate waste so won’t be doing that.
Hopefully you give it to someone who needs it, or sell it for a good price. Keep that thing in mint condition man.
Bought a HTC One. Had it for 4 days. Bought a S4. Sold the S4 the next day on eBay. The One is a far better experience overall, especially for those moving from an iPhone to Android, and are used to the no expansion slot or exchangeable battery restriction.
far better experience pfft if u put a new launcher on it i hate sense 5 but enjoyed sense 4
i use the htc one for music thought my beats headphone voda gave me with the handset and watching videos
i use the s4 for everything
Horses for courses buddy I guess. It’s my first android handset so it’s taking me a bit of time to learn but I like it so far.
Cancelled my order with HN the other day, why pre order if they can get stock on release. Think I will wait for note 3 and be done with this. Another failed launch. First it was Google nexus then HTC one and now Samsung galaxy s4
So what about 32GB? or 64GB?
I’m hoping we actually get to see the 64GB version in a decent time frame. That’s what id like to get.
Yesterday, I got my hand on GS4. Ordered on 30/4 and got it on 02/05. So at the moment I have both HTC One and GS4 in hand to give them a try and decide which one to keep and I can tell you, it is so damn hard to make that call. GS4 is nothing like you have seen on youtube. It look damn good in person and it is so light. However, I still prefer the HTC One screen over the GS4 due to the brightness. Also the dual stereo speakers face directly at you of HTC One… Read more »
Orderd mine through telstra over the phone on tuesday and received it thursday. Couldnt be happier 🙂
I have an S4 ordered online through Virgin. Then I found out that free space is 9.5Gb on 16Gb memory and you can’t transfer apps to the SD card. I will not be completing my order.
That’s because Android partition the internal SD card. OS and Recovery have their own partitions and then a seperate storage for whatever you want.
Buying a 32gb SD card for external storage is pretty cheap though. How many apps are you planning on having? Over 300-400 apps?
I have 6 games installed and it is full so do you reallything 400 apps can fill in 9GB? You buy good and power phone to play with power game not crappy one. And I have following game on my S4: Asphalt 7, Need for speed Most wanted, Fifa 13, E. Warrior 2, Real racing 3, Dungeon Hunter 4, Iron man 3 and 5 small games.
So with 16GB internal storage only variant for the flagship phone is just stupid.
You might need to wait for the 32gb internal one, or root the phone and allow the apps2sd app to move all the games to an external memory card.
I had 200 apps on my S2 and it wasn’t full.
I will sell my 16GB one as soon as 32GB or 64GB hit the market. But I highly doubt it will come any time near future as I know the fact that Samsung always lie to us. Always say about the availability of 32/64GB at launch but then never released them except for few small market.
im going to order the octa core version when 64gb is released
you sure you have fifa 13? i cant seem to find the app
I got the S4 through Optus on Saturday morning last week. I know the specs, I know the features. I’ve been looking forward to this handset for months.
It’s just the same with Apple. Can’t supply enough handsets to accommodate demand. More people are moving to Android and what better handset to do it on when you have the S4?
My handset’s covered in a case, I don’t give a toss about what it’s made of. It’s a fantastic phone and the battery life is great compared to the S2 and S3 🙂
I find it pretty funny how so many people complain about the S4 being plastic and yet most people put their phone(not matter what model) into a plastic cover anyway.
I really like the fact the S4 is so light and at the moment the only way to do that is using modern plastics.
Htc one battery=Fail
HTC one is the answer !
Not for everyone.
Seems everybody wants the phone made of plastic after all! :p
Not surprising seeing as they’re literally the next Apple. People go and buy it without knowing the specs or anything. Quite sad.
If you are after specs, it would be the one phone you could buy without researching the specs…
True that I guess.
But most people wrap their phones in a plastic case anyway no?!