Samsung’s latest and greatest smartphone was announced a few short days ago at the Mobile World Congress, and if you’ve been following news and rumors regarding this device as closely as we have, you would also know about the huge amount of press the device generated before the official announcement. After the official announcement, one does get to gauge how much the pre-announcement hubbub gets converted into actual sales figures. If the tweet from T-Mobile’s CEO is anything to go by, user interest in the Samsung Galaxy S5 has not ebbed. Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile has announced via Twitter that T-Mobile’s pre-registration of the iconic Galaxy S5 has crossed a 100K user registration mark. T-Mobile had launched the pre-registration page to gauge customer inclination for Samsung’s latest flagship device, immediately after the announcement at the MWC. In his own words, Sievert had anticipated that the Samsung Galaxy S5 launch would “be big”, however it seems even the man himself had not anticipated such a huge demand.
On T-Mobile’s online store, the Samsung Galaxy S5 now has its own placeholder, which declares the price of the device to be a whopping $672. Though the device seems overpriced, in comparing it to its unlocked older sibling – the Samsung Galaxy S4 – it is worth noting that the Galaxy S5 is around $48 more than the Galaxy S4. Other estimates suggest that the Galaxy S5 would retail in the $550 to $600 segment for the unlocked variant, whereas it could be in the hands of consumers for as much as $200 to $250 on a 24 month contract. Also since Samsung is rumored to be readying a “premium” variant of the Galaxy S5 – this one with a metal body – we can assume the current announced version to retail for something less than $600. By this logic, we can expect the $672 price tag to be nothing more than a placeholder. The actual availability of the device would be around April 11th, by which time the device would be available across 150 countries.
Since its announcement, the Galaxy S5 has turned out to be a very polarizing device, and as evidenced by these pre-registration figures, the Galaxy S5 does have a fan-following. Which side of the fence are you? Is the Galaxy S5 the device of your dreams or it disappoints with a lack of innovation? Do let us know the comments below.