Samsung’s Galaxy S8 launched carriers worldwide into a promotional tizzy as it made its way out to market, but AT&T and Verizon failed to jump on board with the hype, offering comparatively weak deals. T-Mobile is currently running a buy one get one deal in conjunction with Samsung, and Sprint is still running their own buy one get one promotion. Essentially, this means that the two smaller carriers are the most able to draw customers in with the Galaxy S8. The question, then, is why exactly did the two largest carriers in the US all but sit out the launch of one of the biggest phones of the year?
Verizon’s launch promotion on the Galaxy S8 requires a trade-in and could bring the phone’s payments down to $15 per month. AT&T, on the other hand, is holding a similar trade-in promotion that knocks up to $200 off the price of the device. These weaker promotions, according to data from analyst firm BayStreet, have the two biggest carriers in the US roughly matching the sales performance for last year’s Galaxy S7. Sprint, meanwhile, has a 30% year on year sales increase to show for giving Samsung’s latest flagship a warm welcome. T-Mobile rounds things out with a 15% drop for this year versus the Galaxy S7, likely due to their quick and aggressive promotions for the new device when it hit last year.
While AT&T and Verizon may have largely sat out the Galaxy S8’s launch, the year is far from over as far as flagship launches. The Moto Z2 and Moto Z2 Force are both incoming, though they may end up only being on Verizon and T-Mobile. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, the sequel that it’s pinning its hopes on to redeem the Note lineage, will allegedly be coming out some time this summer. The HTC U 11 is coming in the near future and may well hit all of the major carriers. LG is due to put out the V30 some time soon, as well. While sales of new phones overall are waning, AT&T and Verizon still have a good few chances to really put their best foot forward and stand behind a phone.