While Samsung prepares to announce its Galaxy S22 series on Wednesday, reports indicate that the Korean manufacturer is already pulling models of last year’s series off the market.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra appears to no older be on sale on the Samsung website in top markets, including the U.S., U.K, France, Germany, while other models in the series remain available. Notably, on the U.S. site, one the recently launched Galaxy S21 FE is marketed front and center, while customers would have to navigate a bit into a “compare the models” section to find the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus. This could suggest that those models are also on their last leg before being discontinued.
Media reports have also said carriers including, Verizon and T-Mobile have also stopped offering the Galaxy S21 Ultra on their websites prior to the February 9 Galaxy Unpacked event.
There could be many reasons for Samsung discontinuing the Galaxy S21 Ultra so soon before its upcoming launch, it might be largely in part to the ongoing component shortage that is plaguing several industries.
Industry insider, Jon Prosser currently indicates that Samsung might split the model availability with the upcoming Galaxy S22 Ultra releasing to market on February 25 and the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus going on sale March 11.
Reports do indicate that there is a decent amount of interest surrounding the Galaxy S22 Ultra, with an industry poll suggesting 20 percent of almost 11,000 participants planned to purchase the device. This could likely be due to its built in S-Pen and other features that stand apart from the other devices in the series.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra will now stand to grab the customers who were diehard Galaxy Note fans. Samsung can only wait and see if the rose by another name will be just as sweet.