In the shadow of the iPhone 13 and a new and aggressive “Forever Upgrade” plan to sell them, T-Mobile executives are complaining about Samsung phones, Fierce Wireless reports. Specifically, the lack of them.
“Samsung has lagged behind the eight balls relative to other OEMs on the global supply chain issue,” T-Mobile chief financial officer and executive vice president Peter Osvaldik said on Tuesday. The problem seems to be that most T-Mobile customers are “very important Samsung lovers,” according to Osvaldik, and that Samsung “discards” the Galaxy Note – which “customers loved” – and a shorter offer of S series phones have had an impact on the carrier.
Despite what Osvaldik said, Samsung has not yet officially suspended the Note, so far skipping a 2021 version in favor of adding S Pen support to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 3. I’m not sure if Osvaldik reveals some secret decision that Samsung has made according to its comments, but we have contacted Samsung to find out.
It is possible in the effort to make the folds commonplace, Samsung has decided to ignore the positive aspects of the note, but the company has also been affected by the global shortage of semiconductors, like everyone else. Samsung was reportedly planning to stop production of the Galaxy S21 Fan Edition (FE) in June and it was also rumored that it would run into chip issues with its A-series phones. Overall, it is difficult to launch several flagship phones, even in a normal year.
T-Mobile’s comments are a testament to Samsung’s reach, however, and taking Osvaldik to face value, perhaps also further confirmation that the note should stay.