If you’re a mobile phone carrier with plans to offer the Samsung Galaxy S6 with a curved screen, it’s going to cost you.
An anonymous source at one of Samsung’s mobile carrier partners in Europe has told Ars Technica that Samsung plans to charge carriers $1,076 for the mid-level 64GB curved Galaxy S6 and $1,189 for the top-end 128GB model, which is about $56 more expensive than the comparable iPhone 6 Plus. The source also suggested to Ars Technica that Samsung — which is expected to announce the Galaxy S6 at Mobile World Congress next week — may be experiencing yield issues with the curved display, as carriers are having trouble acquiring sufficient stock of the model that offers that feature.
Samsung will, according to Ars Technica, offer a more traditional version of the S6 (with a shape similar to the S5) in addition to the version that will boast a curved edge on both the left and right sides. The pre-subsidy cost to carriers of the non-curved Galaxy S6 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models will be $849, $963 and $1,076, respectively. These numbers are vastly higher than the original costs of the Galaxy S5 models.
Ars Technica‘s source additionally told the outlet that manufacturing issues of the curved S6 display may be what is creating stock limitations. This is an issue the report points to as being particularly problematic because Samsung’s marketing focus will be dedicated almost entirely to the curved version, while only one third of the S6 devices being shipped will be of that style.
As the report notes, all is not necessarily lost for Samsung, because there is a chance that the low yield on curved displays could be resolved before the S6 hits the consumer market. Those high prices, however, might not indicate such a straight line to success.