It's always the same story every year. Rumors claim that Samsung's next flagship Galaxy S series would launch much earlier than its predecessor. So it's not surprising to hear similar rumors for the Galaxy S22 lineup.
Word on the street is that Samsung will be launching the Galaxy S22 lineup earlier than expected. It's claimed that the Galaxy S22 might actually be launched before the end of this year. Is that really going to be the case, though?
Samsung rumored to launch the Galaxy S22 before 2021 ends
There's a reason why these rumors tend to seem plausible. Samsung has changed its timeline for a new Galaxy S series launch over the past few years. Earlier models were launched as far ahead as March of the new year.
Samsung has made gradual changes over the years. It moved the launch from March into February as it stopped using the MWC stage in Barcelona to unveil the new flagship. This year's Galaxy S21 series was announced on January 14, about a month earlier compared to the February 11, 2020 launch for the Galaxy S20 series.
With the Galaxy S22 series expected to enter mass production in November this year, rumors are floating in South Korea that Samsung might launch the Galaxy S22 series before the end of 2021. So that should put the announcement at some point in the month of December.
In almost all rumors that we have previously seen about an early launch for the next flagship Galaxy S series, Samsung's need to counter the threat from the new iPhone series is mentioned. Today's rumor also claims that Samsung is opting for an early launch to actively respond to the new iPhones coming out next month.
The lack of a new flagship series in the second half of the year is also said to be one of the reasons. There's no new Galaxy Note flagship this year. Even though they're breaking sales records, the new foldables can't quite match the numbers that Samsung's conventional lineups are able to bring in.
We have already discussed how even with a January launch of the Galaxy S22 series the upcoming Galaxy S21 FE will be dead on arrival. A December launch would mean that the Galaxy S21 FE, due to release in late October, would only have about a month on the market before something better comes out. That's really not going to be a smart decision.
So take these reports about a 2021 launch for the Galaxy S22 series with a grain of salt for now. It's far more likely that Samsung will wait until the new year to launch its next flagship series.