To Samsung's surprise, the Galaxy S5 has hit the market early.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is on sale now in South Korea, two weeks early - much to Samsung's surprise.

The S5 is set to go on sale around the world on April 11, hitting shop shelves in 150 countries before the month is out. But the wait is too long for impatient South Korean carrier SK Telecom, which has made the phone available today for around 866,800 won.

Korean networks were keen to get the S5 into the hands of phone fans early because they're not allowed to sign up new customers in parts of April and May, as punishment from the government for illegally subsidising new customers. The sanctions mean SK Telecom, KT Corp and LG Uplus Crop would have had to sit on their hands as the S5's official release date came and went.

So SK Telecom has defied Samsung and started shifting the S5 early. "We just wanted to provide the device to local users as soon as possible. It is for the good of our subscribers," an official from SK Telecom told Korea Herald.

Samsung released the following statement: [we have] "provided mobile carriers with a limited number of units for marketing and pre-sales activities, but the decision to release the device early in the Korean market was made by the mobile carrier itself, independently of Samsung. We express our regret at this decision and we are working to verify all the facts."

It's a heck of an audacious move for a mobile carrier to risk its relationship with the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturer on its own turf - and it sets a heck of a precedent. Networks and carriers around the world must be very curious to see what will happen next.

Source: CNET

Samsung is now being investigated for false advertising in Taiwan.

Fair-trade officials in Taiwan are looking into reports that Samsung paid people to criticise rival HTC online.

Samsung is alleged to have hired students to post negative comments about phones made by Taiwan's HTC.

Samsung, based in South Korea, said the "unfortunate incident" had gone against the company's "fundamental principles".

If found guilty of engaging in "false advertising", Samsung and its local agent could face fines of up to of 25m Taiwanese dollars (£547,000).

A local website had published documents appearing to show Samsung had been recruiting students to criticise HTC and praise Samsung anonymously on the web.

Samsung Taiwan said it had not been told about the investigation, however the subsidiary put a statement on its local Facebook page saying it had "ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments". It said all future marketing work would be more in line with its company philosophy of transparency and honesty.

"The recent incident was unfortunate, and occurred due to insufficient understanding of these fundamental principles," it said, adding that it was planning training for employees to ensure events were not repeated.

In early 2013, Samsung was fined by Taiwanese authorities for an advert that misled consumers about the camera on the Galaxy Y Duo.

Source: BBC, PC Advisor