Difficulty getting a P3 in Canada, WHY?!

[MojoPatrol]

Hey ho fellow Samsung users/enthusiasts!

So I have a couple of questions. I'm currently rocking a SanDisk e280 (please don't disown me for that fact). Any who, great player lasted forever BUT! times er' a changing and it's time for an upgrade. Plus the cracked screen and frequent freezes are a bit of a factor too.

SO!, after reading just about every review of the Samsung P3 online it seemed like a pretty healthy choice compared to the Cowan S9 and all other touch screener PMP's out there, but there's only one problem. The damn P3's might as well be made out of solid gold with how hard they are to find!

Now I'm from Canada, the back water North that electronic industries feels doesn't really exist when it comes to MP3's. Sweet Mary they won't even release us the freaking Zune HD...ALL WE HAVE IN CANADA IS FREAKING IPODS AND ZUNES!

Now I've been scoping out forums all over the net. Turns out Futureshop and BestBuy.ca (the two major electronics retailers in Canada) carried the Samsung P3 for all of 2 weeks before it disappeared off the shelves “until further notice”. Meanwhile down in the states the only two places I've been able to find it has been B&H Photo and Dell.com, no store retailer is carrying it (this is a major problem since if I buy it out of the states I can take the $224 CND base price for a 16GB and add on $80 to $100 additional in shipping charges).

So I guess I've come up with 2 questions:

1) Why are these things so hard to come by? High Demand, Newly arising defects resulting in recall? There has to be some sort of conclusion for such a limited supply. (One website (based out of the US) even claimed that their stock was pulled at request of Samsung) thoughts on this?

and...

2) Does any Canadian on this forum know of any kind of retailers in Canada, online or otherwise that carry the P3 that I might be able to get in touch with?


P.S. At this rate, the only company that's been nice enough to release a decent touch screen player other than Ipod in Canada is Sony with their X-Series (32gb) which A) isn’t released until July 3/09 and B) is ungodly expensive boasting a price tag of $500 dollars CND, that's about $440 US (I'm not that desperate...yet...)

[CrowdAds]

[Azrael]

There's no official reason given. The speculation is that the P2 didn't sell well enough (compared to the Ipod juggernaut) for Futureshop or Best Buy to continue selling the newer P3's. The other, less-likely speculation is that there are production issues and Samsung just can't produce enough for a worldwide market.

The Zune HD might be another good alternative if you can live with the closed, Itunes'esq software and the 3-4 month wait (it releases in sep. but we canadians usually have to wait a little longer).

[TomCat39]

You can get one at warehouse123.com for 239 USD with 22.08 USD fedex shipping.

That's to Canada. Convert that over and it should be less than 300.

I bought mine at futureshop in BC. Spent 249 plus 69.99 for the 3 year warranty. After taxes, it was 350 CAD. But in 3 years I can get a brand spanking new (equivalent) player for no charge because the warranty. It covers battery and Lithium-Ion batteries only have about a 3 year shelf life.

Anywho, you won't have that warranty but you can still get the player for less than 300 CAD through warehouse123.com

Do a search for YP-P3 on their site and you'll see they have them in stock.

[giggabotch]

Go figure. I bought the last P3 from my local Best Buy back in April. Try giving Samsung Canada a call. Maybe they can direct you to a smaller retailer in your area.

[ttttyyyy]

ITs easy and fast to buy the P3 here , maybe Canada is not the major market. try the onlineshops though the ship is so high. Sorry there is no advanced opinion i can offered .

[MojoPatrol]

Cool stuff!

To all who have replied thus far, my deepest thanks! To Tomcat, thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely check that out. Usually most of these online stores have 3rd party warranty companies to back up their products (oddly with better coverage options than any sort of in-store retailers) which is probably a good idea to purchase with such an anomalous product and it being so new to North American markets and all. I guess in the next couple of weeks or so I'll do some number crunching and hope that the Canadian dollar keeps going up so I can get a P3 at closer to the US prices in CND. Why did we have to get a huge amount of uninhabitable land and no people all the makings of a shitty consumer economy and keeps Mojo from his beloved new technology *sad!*

[TomCat39]

Originally Posted by MojoPatrol

Cool stuff!

To all who have replied thus far, my deepest thanks! To Tomcat, thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely check that out. Usually most of these online stores have 3rd party warranty companies to back up their products (oddly with better coverage options than any sort of in-store retailers) which is probably a good idea to purchase with such an anomalous product and it being so new to North American markets and all. I guess in the next couple of weeks or so I'll do some number crunching and hope that the Canadian dollar keeps going up so I can get a P3 at closer to the US prices in CND. Why did we have to get a huge amount of uninhabitable land and no people all the makings of a shitty consumer economy and keeps Mojo from his beloved new technology *sad!*

I disagee with your last statement, there are much lesser populated countries that are cutting edge technology, it's all about the key players here and how greedy they want to be. The greedier they are the slower the deals get made being it's too costly for outside companies to "test" their new products.

Just read an article about this exact thing concerning Technology and Canada in McLeans. We are becoming the technological backwater all because the the closed markets here and the monopolies greed.

[MojoPatrol]

Originally Posted by TomCat39

I disagee with your last statement, there are much lesser populated countries that are cutting edge technology, it's all about the key players here and how greedy they want to be. The greedier they are the slower the deals get made being it's too costly for outside companies to "test" their new products.

Just read an article about this exact thing concerning Technology and Canada in McLeans. We are becoming the technological backwater all because the the closed markets here and the monopolies greed.

Really? Hey could you let me know what issue of McLeans that's in, I'd be interested to take a read, sounds interesting. I also agree on your Monopoly point. That's blatantly obvious, at least they could be a bit more discrete about it. It makes sense though, I mean the same thing happens with cellphone providers, plus NAFTA hasn't exactly been kind to us either but that's more an annoyance side note.

[TomCat39]

Originally Posted by MojoPatrol

Really? Hey could you let me know what issue of McLeans that's in, I'd be interested to take a read, sounds interesting. I also agree on your Monopoly point. That's blatantly obvious, at least they could be a bit more discrete about it. It makes sense though, I mean the same thing happens with cellphone providers, plus NAFTA hasn't exactly been kind to us either but that's more an annoyance side note.

The article is in the June 15th, 2009 MacLeans. They sent me the complimentary issue in hopes I would subscribe to them.

The cover article is about Cirqu Du Soleil if that helps you at all. "Sex, Drugs & Acrobats".

The backwater Canada article is on page 36.

[vhdl99_ca]

Hi I have a 2-days old Samsung P3 touch screen MP3 player 16GB. The item is very new and hard to find in Canada. I got this for a gift when I was in the US.

The Samsung sound quality is great (much better than Ipod). I don't have much time to use it with my new baby son

I can sell it for $250Cnd if anyone is interested. I live in Toronto.

[YPP3Fanatic]

What Province are you in, I'm in BC and I got mine in May from Best Buy

[MojoPatrol]

They were still carrying them in BestBuy? Shit! I was in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago! Wish I'd known that. Plus I'm in Uni in B.C. for eight months of the year. GAH! Oh the frustration. All said and done I ordered my P3 from Dell and jumped through plenty of hoops. It's now on its way North from a friend of mine in Colorado. *Sigh* oh waiting all summer for it. So much fun. Hopefully it should be in my hot little hands next week

[curiouswonderer]

Originally Posted by MojoPatrol

They were still carrying them in BestBuy? Shit! I was in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago! Wish I'd known that. Plus I'm in Uni in B.C. for eight months of the year. GAH! Oh the frustration. All said and done I ordered my P3 from Dell and jumped through plenty of hoops. It's now on its way North from a friend of mine in Colorado. *Sigh* oh waiting all summer for it. So much fun. Hopefully it should be in my hot little hands next week

Haha, don;t worry... Bestbuy in BC haven't been carrying the P3 for at least a few month now...

[MojoPatrol]

Originally Posted by curiouswonderer

Haha, don;t worry... Bestbuy in BC haven't been carrying the P3 for at least a few month now...

Oh good. I was really kicking myself for awhile there. But I suppose price wise I probably got a slightly better deal buying from the states anyways since we all know how Canadian retailers like to mark-up prices on electronics + extra taxes, YAY!

[Reycrimson]

Hi vhdl99 ca, i was wondering, r you still seling that P3 i'm very interested I live in toronto too.
Do you have a warranty for it?

[vzegm]

I think you'd listen to me as well...
I live in Toronto right now, and I also bought my P3 in Toronto from Best Buy.

I bought my 8GB Black Samsung P3 from Best Buy in Downtown Toronto on March '09...
When I checked the site on May, the P3s were all pulled out of the stores in Canada...
I checked Samsung responses on Emodio Korea, they said that the demands were terribly low in North America in general. More people bought the P2, and others weren't quite sure that they'd want a P3 or not.

If you don't believe me, I have access to sales information from Samsung (my relatives work for Samsung)...
The approximate ratio for Samsung YP-P3 sales between S. Korea and the rest of the world is 3:1
Compared to sales of YP-P3 between S. Korea and N. America only to be 11:1

Global (includes Korea) sales ratio between Samsung YP-P2 and Samsung YP-P3 is 6:1

[TomCat39]

Originally Posted by vzegm

Global (includes Korea) sales ratio between Samsung YP-P2 and Samsung YP-P3 is 6:1

You also have to remember, the YP-P2 was on shelves here in Canada for nearly a year I think, possibly a little longer. I know it went through at least 1 christmas for sure.

The YP-P3 only say about 60 days on shelves here in Canada and to top it all off, it was on shelves in March, just before Tax time when everyone is recovering from Christmas spending and preparing for the dreaded Taxes. And then only had stock for a mere 60 days if that. I think all stock sold out around 45 days to be honest.

Samsung set the YP-P3 up to fail period. They had no intention of having a good sales run.

Zero advertising, the worst possible release date imaginable. And didn't keep stock around so the sales could grow (no snowball effect).

From my perspective, Samsung had no intentions to make the YP-P3 successful. If anything, it looks like a feigned attempt to give them a "reasonable" excuse to get out of the PMP market in Canada, and quite possibly the USA. A ploy, nothing more. That's how it looks to me.

[triarii117]

Then what would explain the R1 on the Samsung US site? And the R1 actually seems to be a better player.
And if leaving those markets was the idea, then why did they simply not release anything here? Doing that stunt was a total waste of money on Samsungs part. It is absurd to put money into research and the manufacturing of an Mp3 player only to use it as a ploy to leave a market.

[TomCat39]

USA site. But nothing for Canada as far as I can tell. Samsung appears to have pulled completely out of Canada as far as PMP's go. No R1, no M1, no P3, not even the P2 is at any of the major retailers in BC.

And how do you explain the marketing tactics of zero advertising, the worst time for release, and then not supplying after 30 days?

Like I said, from my perspective it looks to me like a ploy. And I did say USA in a speculative concept, not in a definitive way.

To say it's not a ploy would imply that Samsung is stupid and doesn't know how to do marketing. It's a catch 22 really. Say it's an accident, Samsung looks inexperienced and ignorant being they've been in business in Canada for how long?. Say it's on purpose, then it looks like Samsung is stategically denying Canada.

[triarii117]

Maybe they did not want to invest the time and cost in marketing when the market in most of the world is impossible to enter. And not everyone is an audiophile; the P3 is marketed more towards us and not Average Joe.

I don't see why they would want to strategically deny Canada.