Galaxy S8 supply may fail to meet demand due to "sluggish" chip production

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus supply may fail to meet demand as a result of the “sluggish production of Qualcomm chipsets,” reports The Korea Herald. The reason behind this wasn’t commented on, but The Korea Herald‘s sources also indicate that Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 production is “falling behind market expectations.”

In January, we heard rumors that Samsung was “hoarding” Snapdragon 835 orders and that this had prevented other manufacturers from obtaining them. The LG G6 and HTC U Ultra were both subsequently released with a Snapdragon 821 processor. Meanwhile, Forbes also reported that the Snapdragon 835 wouldn’t be available “in large quantities until after the Galaxy S8 [launch].”

It has since been speculated that Samsung predicts a greater number of pre-orders for the S8 and S8 Plus than it received for the Galaxy Note 7, and greater initial sales than the S7 and S7 Edge achieved.

Considering all of this, it seems entirely possible that there won’t be enough chipsets to meet the initial demand for the devices. It looks like Samsung has managed to guarantee that its new flagships will be the first to sport the Snapdragon 835, but in doing so it might have cost itself access to significant quantities of them.

While this may not result in a delay to the S8 and S8 Plus’ US debut (the Western Galaxy models usually feature Qualcomm’s chipsets), it could mean that they are in short supply at launch — something to keep in mind if you’re considering pre-ordering one of them.