The launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Fan Edition (FE) has reportedly been canceled due to the chip shortage currently plaguing the mobile market and may never be sold at all. Samsung was earlier reported to have made this decision back in June, but the company denied it. The S21 FE was expected by analysts to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2021 (between October and December). Now, a new report says that Samsung has canceled the launch of the device and is currently reviewing whether it wants to launch the device at all.
Today’s report comes from Korean news site Digital Daily, which quotes a Samsung official as saying: “We canceled the Galaxy S21 FE online [Unpacked], which was planned for mid-October,” The official then added: “We are reviewing the smartphone launch itself.”
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE’s launch was always tenuous. With the ongoing chip shortage, companies have had to readjust their product strategies to make the most of what they’ve had. The Galaxy S21 series, powered by the same Snapdragon 888 that Samsung would use in the S21 FE, has been facing supply issues, with some carriers publicly complaining. Even Google, a company that was using last year’s 765G, was forced to limit the launch of the Pixel 5a 5G to the U.S. and Japan as a result of not being able to source enough chips.
Other factors cited for the S21 FE’s potential cancellation are the success of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3. Both devices had a very strong start in pre-orders, and that momentum hasn’t dsubsided yet. Samsung is reportedly considering focusing its resources on those two devices as the pair use the same Snapdragon 888 processor as the S21 series.
While the Galaxy S21 FE would have taken most of the specs of the Galaxy S21 line and brought them to a lower price point, the regular Galaxy S21 is cheap enough that it may not make sense in a time of constrained resources to further expand the lineup.
We’ve reached out to Samsung for comment and will update this story when we receive a response.
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