Samsung Malaysia will only bring in the Galaxy S7 edge for the Malaysian market. The larger variant of the Galaxy S7 is set to launch in Malaysia in the middle of next month.
The official Samsung Malaysia website has an extensive five-page highlight of the Galaxy S7 edge, but the entire site makes no mention of the Galaxy S7. This is in contrast to the Singapore site, which mentions the S7 alongside the S7 edge every step of the way.
An electronic direct mail (EDM) sent about an hour ago from Samsung Malaysia Electronics also only mentions the pre-orders for S7 edge.
Speaking on conditions of anonymity, a source at Samsung Malaysia confirms that the company will only be launching the S7 edge in Malaysia. There are currently no plans to bring the S7 anytime soon, the source adds.
The move will be seen as quite a surprise, especially given that the S7 and S7 edge now have different screen sizes at 5.1 and 5.5 inches respectively. The larger S7 edge retains the same hardware as the S7, but with a larger 3.600mAh battery.
Considering that the edge variants are usually priced higher than the regular model due to the Edge Screen design and UX, the move can be seen as a pretty risky one for a price-sensitive market such as Malaysia.
However, it may be that the company would prefer to focus its sales and marketing on one flagship product, unlike the S6 and S6 edge in 2015.
Plus, the source adds that the S6 edge variant was supposedly more popular in Malaysia (but did not add that it sold better), and the move to bring in the S7 edge only is to “meet consumer demand” for larger screens.
While it is not uncommon for Samsung to only launch specific devices for a certain market – the Galaxy Note 5 was not available in Europe, for example – this will be a first for the Malaysian market.
It remains to be seen if Samsung Malaysia will eventually release the regular Galaxy S7 in the coming months after the S7 edge launch on 18 March. As reported earlier, pre-orders will open from 7-11 March 2016.
