Last year there was a lengthy wait between the international launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II and the American launch. Most of this was attributed to the carriers wanting to differentiate their devices so dramatically it delayed the actual launch of them by months. However, with the Galaxy S III, Samsung has appeared to push the same design to each carrier – so much so, each carrier has identical internal specifications and the basic shell design to work with.

Starting later this month, the Galaxy S III will be available for as little as $199 on contract from Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and US Cellular. Further pricing details from individual carriers will become known in the coming weeks.

Specifications include:

• 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor
• 2 GB of RAM
• 4.8 inch Super AMOLED HD display
• 8 MP rear facing camera
• 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage, plus MicroSD slot
• LTE and HSPA+ connectivity
• 2100 mAh battery
• Android 4.0 with TouchWiz Nature UX
• Available in Marble White or Pebble Blue

You may have noticed that these specifications are similar to those in the Canadian variants last week and you'd be right. It is not yet known how the individual carriers will market their own Galaxy S III model but expect bloatware and SIM locking to be widely prominent.

KitGuru says: It's good to see Samsung putting their foot down and demand that they design the phones and let the carriers market them.

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