The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge were officially released today, although many who pre-ordered one of the devices received them earlier in the week. A quick check around stores in Los Angeles shows that there weren’t lines anything like there were for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus release. In fact, at most places, there weren’t lines at all.
The T-Mobile Store in Van Nuys didn’t have anybody in line when the store opened and a salesperson admitted that they sold about 20 phones as of 12 p.m. PST. Still, the store was crowded and people were more interested in the Galaxy S6 Edge than the Galaxy S6. Even though there wasn’t a huge amount of fanfare at this particular store, BGR reports that Samsung’s new devices are already a huge hit for T-Mobile.
“T-Mobile said on Thursday that preorders for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge have been through the roof and are already nearly double those of the Galaxy S5 – previously the most popular Galaxy phone ever at T-Mobile…Now, it’s true that T-Mobile also has a lot more subscribers now than it did at this time last year but this is still an impressive figure for Samsung to hang its hat on. Last year’s Galaxy S5 had strong early sales but they quickly petered out as the device wasn’t nearly as well received as its predecessors, the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S III.”
A phone call to the Verizon T-Mobile Store in Burbank revealed that there weren’t a lot of people in line because most of their customers pre-ordered and will pick their Samsung Galaxy S6 devices up during lunch or after work. A trip to the main Sprint Store in Burbank at 1 p.m. PST revealed that there were seven people in the store. However, one of them was buying an iPhone 6 Plus. Ouch! The manager at the store wouldn’t reveal any sales figures.
A call to a Verizon Store in Downtown Chicago at 1:30 p.m. PST revealed that they expect to sell out of their first shipment of 70 Galaxy S6 Units (20 of them are Galaxy S6 Edge devices) by the end of the day. Moments later, a call to the Sprint store nearby revealed that they were already sold out. Looking through online forums, it’s obvious that some other stores will sell out by the end of the day, but it’s not clear the exact inventory those stores had.
Despite there not being huge lines, The Verge reports that Samsung expects record shipments. Judging by the excellent reviews, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy 6 Edge may eventually become Samsung’s most successful products to date.
[Photo Credit: Daryl Deino]
