A new tip from a relatively well-known tipster now suggests that Samsung's recent channel leaks - which saw an unreleased Galaxy S26 Ultra fall into the hands of a tech YouTuber amid concurrent reports of a plethora of those unreleased units making their way to shady online stores - were the result of a collective distributors' strike against the South Korean behemoth's supposedly extractive policies.
Samsung's MX division, pressured by its semiconductor arm, tried to gain some financial room by squeezing its distributors, with disastrous results
As we detailed recently, a Dubai-based tech YouTuber, Sahil Karoul, was able to get his hands on the unreleased Galaxy S26 Ultra over the weekend, stripping the last vestiges of secrecy and mystique surrounding the flagship device in the process. After all, Karoul showed the unreleased device from almost every angle, including the famous Privacy Display in action and the disappointing specs of the device's S Pen.
Worse still, an entire batch of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra devices was then made available for purchase on a few shady online stores.
Now, we might have a convincing explanation as to the cause behind this highly embarrassing event, courtesy of Schrodinger's Telegram channel, where he explains that Samsung's mobile-focused MX division, already under a lot of pressure from the behemoth's semiconductor-focused DS division and its refusal to grant the MX division a long-term LPDDR5X RAM supply contract for the Galaxy S26 series, tried to eke out some financial space for its plummeting margins by squeezing its distributors' margins and pushing for more "direct-to-consumer' sales.
In response, Schrondinger alleges that Samsung's distributors, especially those based in Dubai, adopted "strategic negligence" as their modus operandi and "tripped over the official embargo dates," allowing the Galaxy S26 Ultra units to enter the grey market. The tipster terms this development as a "leverage play" on the part of Samsung's distributors against its MX division.
Interestingly, Samsung anticipated such a retaliation and shipped its early Galaxy S26 units with a software lock that disabled the much-anticipated "Proactive AI" feature until 10:00 a.m. PT, when the Galaxy Unpacked event officially begins.
Meanwhile, we reported earlier today that Samsung's mobile-focused MX division has equipped around 50 percent of the initial batches of the Galaxy S26 series with an LPDDR5X memory from Micron instead of the one from Samsung's DS unit, which appears to be in no mood to offer any meaningful discounts to Samsung's mobile-focused arm.
Consequently, while the MX division has implemented a 50/50 DRAM split - divided between Samsung's own LPDDR5X and the one sourced from Micron - for the initial batches of the Galaxy S26 series, "production volumes beyond the initial batch have not yet been determined, so there is effectively no concept of a 'first vendor' at this point."
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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