Rumors Still Claim Samsung Will Launch The Galaxy S8 Earlier Than Expected

Since Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 has been officially discontinued, the company doesn’t have a flagship smartphone to sell this holiday season. This has led to rumors stating that the South Korean phone maker might actually launch the Galaxy S8 earlier than expected.

Samsung typically debuts a new iteration of its Galaxy S smartphone during the annual Mobile World Congress in late February or early March, with sales commencing the following month. People are now speculating that Samsung will be launching the Galaxy S8 one month before the Mobile World Congress 2017, according to Ubergizmo. If this is true, it seems like Samsung wants to fill the vacuum left by the Note 7 debacle.

Google just came out with its Pixel smartphones recently, and it seems like they are going to be two of the most sought after Android smartphones this holiday season. Apple, on the other hand, is expected to launch a major update to the iPhone in 2017 to celebrate its 10th anniversary of the smartphone. Launching the Galaxy S8 in January 2017 could put Samsung ahead of Apple, and it could also compensate for the South Korean brand's losses during the 2016 holiday season.

Although this seems like a reasonable strategy, analysts are saying that an early Galaxy S8 launch might not be possible for Samsung. “It is virtually impossible for Samsung Electronics to move up the date of the Galaxy S8 as the company’s hands are full due to follow-up measures to deal with the Galaxy Note 7 incident,” a smartphone industry representative said via Business Korea.

“Amid a slew of various guesses about the causes of the fires, unless Samsung Electronics properly elucidates what ignited the fires, its next smartphone model may risk the same problem.”

An early launch is also counterproductive especially with the Note 7 catching fire still being fresh in consumers’ minds. It was also reported earlier this week that Samsung still has no clue what caused the overheating problem on the Note 7 and has even tasked the Galaxy S8 development team to help with the investigation. Samsung executives have apparently delayed development of the Galaxy S8 by two weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal. This is yet another reason why an early launch is such an impossible task for Samsung.

The Galaxy S8 is expected to come with major upgrades. The upcoming flagship smartphone is said to come with a 4K display with an edge-to-edge design, a 16MP dual-camera setup, a 10-nanometer mobile Exynos 8895 processor and an integrated fingerprint scanner on the edge-to-edge display, eliminating the need for a physical home button up front.