If anyone is worried that they won't be able to get their hands on a Samsung Galaxy S4 at launch, don't be. A Korean publication, MoneyTalk, reports that the company plans to have 100 million Galaxy phones available (analysts estimate that the S3 has already sold 60 million) and this order is so momentous that it could actually pull suppliers away from Apple.
BGR reports that Peter Misek, a Jeffries & Company analyst, wrote in his research note that in order to acommodate demand, suppliers have been allocating resources away from Apple to meet Samsung's order. The Galaxy S4, which is slated to come out in May or June, could end up going head to head with the iPhone 5S, which is rumored to be coming out in June.
Samsung reportedly lost an estimated 2 million sales because it underestimated the demand on its Galaxy S3. A hardware glitch also contributed to delays on thousands of pre-orders for the Pebble Blue color scheme, so if any company understands the risk of a supply shortage, it's Samsung. At the time, its only competitors were the HTC OneX and the iPhone, so a dearth of options on the market may have contributed to higher demand for the critically acclaimed phone.
Samsung seems to expect that the Galaxy S4 sales will shatter S3's record, and it could be overestimating demand — but Google made the same mistake earlier this year and paid dearly for it. Google predicted that the Nexus 4 wouldn't sell very well, based on Galaxy Nexus sales, which led to LG not producing enough units and shipping them from the wrong areas, which subsequently led to a substantial amount of finger-pointing in the aftermath.
Apple is planning to release two iPhones this year, the iPhone 5S, and a rumored cheaper model with a plastic design. Misek also said earlier that Apple's iPhone 6 suppliers are having trouble building its new display, so the launch could be pushed back to 2014.
